Canal breach video and pics.

[Globalti]

Don't ride along this towpath in the dark!

http://www.boatsandcanals.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5647

 

[zimzum42]

Not quite the same, but some serious flooding in Singapore last week when a freak storm made the drainage canals overflow. The roads were submerged, each pedal stroke took my foot underwater, and was totally submerged by the waves when cars raced past...

 

[zimzum42]

This guy took it a bit slower than the guys who drenched me!


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HLSxIpYoBE

 

[summerdays]

That canal (bit further along) used to run through Mr Summerdays parents farm when he was a child. I didn't realise canal's were that shallow...

 

[zimzum42]

I was thinking that too, they really are shallow. I guess they start deeper and get silted up...

 

[longers]

I was thinking that too, they really are shallow. I guess they start deeper and get silted up...

We used to be able to walk across the bottom of one near our house and just keep our noses above water. Not everywhere along it but in a few places. Probably still can but don't fancy it much nowadays.

 

[Headgardener]

Maximum depth of the canals through out Britian apart from the Manchester Ship Canal is only about 7 foot in the middle, altough some locks can be up to 20 foot deep when full.

 

[Campfire]

Wow. I used to live quite near to there. Never been down the tow path though. When I was doing my charity canal walk in September there was a stretch of canal with no water. I think vandals had opened the gates or something. It did look strange, you always think they're deeper than they are.

I hope they manage to get it sorted out, quite a catastrophe that!

 

[very-near]

I was thinking that too, they really are shallow. I guess they start deeper and get silted up...

They are never that deep to start off with TBH. Many are about 4ft at the edge and up to about 6/7ft in the middle.

They line them with a layer of clay to seal them and drain each section periodically over the winter to repair any damage to this layer. This is why many have said the idea of transporting large quantities of water across the country is a non starter. If you pumped a few gazillion gallons through them, you would wash them away in no time and they would start to leak.

Apart from which, the lock flights use overflows and 'pounds' (mini reservoirs) to keep the levels stable. When we were descending the Kennett and Avon into Bath, the sky opened up big time for about 1/2 hour, and the combination of this and a few canal lock cycles flooded the surrounding buildings.

Get this wrong and it the boats above the locks run aground as well.

 

[yenrod]

We used to be able to walk across the bottom of one near our house and just keep our noses above water. Not everywhere along it but in a few places. Probably still can but don't fancy it much nowadays.

Some confidence that Longs !

 

[Stig-OT-Dump]

Maximum depth of the canals through out Britian apart from the Manchester Ship Canal is only about 7 foot in the middle, altough some locks can be up to 20 foot deep when full.

Ooh! Point of order! The Crinan Canal (10') and Caledonian Canal (15', reduced from proposed 20') are both deeper than 7'. I don't mean to be as anal as I appear, but I've spent a lot of hours in canals and just wish they were deeper so that I wouldn't have to spend as long underwater on a shift.

 

[Globalti]

Of course the Caledonian Canal is deeper, that's how Nessie goes out to the sea to visit her relatives in Norway.