THE RESERVOIR AT WHALEY BRIDGE that provides water for the Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals, collapsed in August 2019, and caused numerous stoppages.
For the Toddbrook Reservoir fed both the Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals, that even today are suffering stoppages, and have done ever since its failure.
An enquiry blamed Canal & River Trust for the disaster, as they had not inspected it for years, leaving it in danger of collapse. It was the spill way that collapsed, with the resulting deluge of water pulling boats away from their moorings as the water poured down the Peak Forest Canal swamping everything in its path.
Such was the danger of the collapse that around 1,500 homes had to be quickly evacuated in Whaley Bridge after part of the spillway of Toddbrook Reservoir broke away.
It even needed RAF helicopters to drop 400 bags of aggregate to help prevent the dam wall from collapsing completely. Even then, as can be seen, the reservoir was virtually drained, and so there was no major supply to the waterways.
Back in 2021 I asked why the repairs to the reservoir were not put out to tender, our being told that Keir had been given the contract. It was then stated that in July 2020 the repair would cost £10m. Then the estimate jumped to being between £12m and £16m. But not for long!
For come 2023 our Allan Richards revealed that it had then reached £37.6 millions.
And I learn that Keir still has the contract, and wonder what the final cost will be, more that £37.6m that's for sure.
Any-road-up, it has now been redesigned as part of a three-year programme of work, with the spillway in a different place, but the cost has not been told.
So at last we will eventually again get the two waterways with a decent feed, so let's hope for the best, but alas, bearing in mind the many stoppages of failing lift bridges on the Peak Forest and the locks on the flights on both of them...who can tell?
Toddbrook: A cover-up, also by Allan Richards well explains the trust's attitude to the reservoir's failure.
Nothing more
Nothing more indeed. For surely, like myself, you boaters would have heard enough of the constant failures and closures of the waterways under Canal & River Trust's control, with its constant blame on the weather.
So, my friends, that is it! Until perhaps next Sunday, when we take our usual September cruise for a couple of weeks on the waterways—hopefully!
Victor Swift—telling tales for 25 years...