Shaping the channel ready for lining ‘sandwich’
SHROPSHIRE Union Canal volunteers have continued the fortnightly restoration programme on the Montgomery Canal near Crickheath.
Due to the amount of residual water collecting in the channel that is being restored, a recent task was to pump out the vast volumes of water to enable the shaping process to be continued. This task alone has been presenting a real challenge to the restoration team.
The channel sides are scraped down to the correct angle using diggers at the top and the bottom of each slope and measured with a wooden template frame which is set to the correct angle. It was hoped to start lining and blocking work from May onwards.
When a length of channel is lined with a ‘sandwich’ of four layers of waterproofing materials, it is then ‘paved’ with building blocks to weight these layers down. These layers are put down as huge overlapping blankets which are 6m wide and stretch from the towpath, down, and across, to the top side of the offside bank.
Further on down the canal toward Llanymynech, the Restore Group is gearing up for the reconstruction of Schoolhouse Bridge which is, hopefully, due to begin this year.