Keadby Lock wins top award

The accolade was given for the refurbishment of Keadby Lock on the River Trent at a glittering awards ceremony held at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester on Wednesday 12 March.

Beat off competition from two other nominees

The Grade II listed structure beat off competition from two other nominated schemes in the Midlands in this category. Runner up was Electric Wharf in Warwickshire, and Diglis Water in Worcestershire was commended. The Renaissance Awards aim to recognise best practice in sustainable waterway regeneration throughout the UK.

The £2.7 million project involved replacing four sets of gates, the construction of a new lock control building and other civil engineering works carried out by a team from British Waterways along with Morrison, Cementation Skanska, Byland Engineering and Amalgamated Construction (AMCO).

Original features were maintained

Laurence Morgan, general manager for British Waterways Yorkshire said: "We are delighted that Keadby Lock scheme has won the Design & Construction category in this year’s BURA Awards. I am pleased that the tremendous effort which our engineers put into this complex project has been recognised. They used their skills and experience in working with partners to ensure that the original features were maintained and new features were designed to blend in.

"As a result the completed project has meant that we have a much safer operating system for customers and waterways staff, an improved rate of lock operation and better facilities for the management and control of water resources."

Keadby Lock has the same level of protection as Stonehenge

Keadby Lock is also a Scheduled Ancient Monument with the same level of protection as Stonehenge. The project also been praised by both the Institution of Civil Engineers and English Heritage for its range of engineering and design skills, coupled with its sympathetic approach to heritage.

Last week British Waterways Yorkshire also recently received a commendation for its £1million project at Whitley Lock on the Aire & Calder Navigation at the Institution of Civil Engineers Yorkshire & Humber Awards Ceremony at Harrogate.