YESTERDAY, the 1st of December saw Warehouse Swing Bridge broken and the navigation closed.
This just 18 days since this Leeds & Liverpool bridge last failed, Keith Gudgin reports.
Second failure
And the second failure of a swing bridge in November on that canal, with New Lane Swing Bridge broken on the 29th of the month.
Before this in October there were two more failures, with Holmes Swing Bridge failing on the 10th and Millman Swing Bridge broken on the 18th.
For the boaters moored on this waterway swing bridges are a regular failure stopping their cruises, and stopping many others taking advantage of this canal over the Pennines, us included.
Such failures were rare
Yet when we cruised it in 1995 in a hire boat and then the whole length in our own boat in 2006, every swing bridge was working, and we were informed that under the then British Waterways such failures were rare—as they were regularly tested and maintained, but now of course it is 'wait until it breaks....'
That surely costs more.
And why is it so often a swing bridge is repaired then fails again within a month of its repair?