Despatches from Gloucester
15 March 2010
Welcome to my South Wales & Severn Waterway manager's blog.
It's been another hectic period with the Arctic conditions now giving way to more pleasant early Spring sunshine - long may it continue.
If you've been keeping up to date with our Facebook wall, you'll know we've been very busy at Sharpness Port with an increase in shipping in preparation for the Port Closure. The closure is required so that we can replace the 70 tonne steel gates with new ones. The new gates are made in Holland and have just arrived after being towed all the way from Rotterdam to Sharpness.
Check out the facebook wall for a photo of the gates leaving Rotterdam on the 1st March...
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?v=info&gid=264893373524
We will need a 650 tonne crane to lift the new gates in and the whole operation is being undertaken by highly specialised engineering contractors. Keep an eye on our pages for more postings on this mega-engineering project.
Elsewhere, the maintenance teams have been working hard to cut back vegetation along the canals and rivers and repair defective structures including weirs, locks and bridges.
At the moment, we are trying to fix a canal bed leak on the Monmouthshire & Brecon canal. This was an unplanned job which has caused the canal to be closed longer than we would like. Big apologies to the hire boat companies affected by this. We are hopeful of reopening the canal by mid-March.
On the volunteer front, we are in the middle of our national 'Towpath Tidy' campaign and we've already had a very successful day in Gloucester where we cleared rubbish, painted locks, and even had free boat trips laid on.
If you'd like to get involved in volunteering on your local canals and rivers at any time of the year, just contact me and we'll see what we can do for you.
We've also been busy recruiting seasonal staff to operate the locks and bridges on the River Severn and Gloucester & Sharpness canal. We have 26 new starters joining us soon and it's exciting to meet new people and get ready for the summer boating season.
I've had the pleasure of attending two Dinners recently as a guest of the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) and the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal Society and it's always a humbling experience to be in the company of so many dedicated and committed canal enthusiasts. Without these groups, there wouldn't be a legacy for either current or future generations to enjoy their local canals and rivers.
Finally, did you see the mighty Severn Bore last week? Sky News had live coverage of the 5* Bore and I took the Operations Director, Vince Moran down to the river to see it for ourselves. It never ceases to amaze me just how powerful the tide can be and to see a river literally stop in its tracks and turn the other way in a matter of seconds, really is a natural phenomena. Check out the link on our Facebook page if you want to see more.
Bye for now, Nick
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