They’ve been very kind in letting me use it, it’s the least I can do. I didn’t want to be another person disturbing the lives of all of those effected by trying to get access
This is the reporting with deep context that I wish all the reporters writing on this for newspapers and local tv/radio news all watched before doing their articles. One would hope that could improve things.
Just a shame that the first thing he mentioned was climate change. Given that it also breached in 1971 and that the rainfall in Greater Manchester is no greater than in the 1950's and 1960's to blame climate change is simply idiotic. Get back to behind your sofa.
It is a major problem with reporting of Earth Science-related stories of any kind. The Earth Science community has a major problem at the momemnt trying to get the public to understand how the natural world works, and how humans impact the natural world. And it is not helped by uninformed, headline seeking journalists, who misinform the public!
But half the info is wrong A train track for example is a canal filled with gravel which is the same weight as water and then put track in top The was no soft river bed that wasn't adjusted The whole stretch is known for being built on sinking sand discovery of half way through past the point you could halt etc etc To the extent that the barge drivers NEVER MORED THERE this was forgotten when it went to pleasure lands The old breech was part of the entrance to the aqueduct This is not despite rumours it was There is 1000% a leak before the Breech The lining was washed out from behind it before the Breech
@ hold the info is wrong? I mentioned the breach, if I was to say on open footage it was someone’s fault because they didn’t repair a leak then what do you think happens to me when they come lawyered up? I can only comment on rumours that there was a leak, I have no physical proof other than images on Google which suggest the land colouration points to a leak Nobody know exactly where it started and where has been ripped out as a consequence, I’d say it’s unlikely to be the aqueduct as the centre is quite a bit further down. The original breach was at the aqueduct so not quite the same spot I said they found quick sand Water in a wide canal is definitely heavier than the ballast of a railway
Another factor that has caused several breaks in our canal and waterways in the US are animals. Minks, beavers , foxes, woodchucks build homes near culverts, undermine substrate, which leads to slow leaks at first , then to catastrophe. 10-40 years of rodent damage can be slow at first to the point of almost being unnoticed, but still a contributing factor.
American cray fish like to burrow into the sides of river banks etc and they then collapse, it happens a lot on normal rivers so could be on of the reasons. Badgers would have been easy to see and then stop from digging in, anything bigger than a mouse would have been spotted eventually and appropriate actions would have been taken. More than likely a combination of things that has caused this.
@ they are only easy to see if someone’s checking. There are crayfish in there, I saw some pics of them in the drained canal, I couldn’t tell you which ones they are though
Nice video. A good reminder that Everything we build either requires continuous maintenance... or if uneconomic, one day it will fail... and we know, and accept this...
The landscape around us is continually changing, that’s why these structures need to be checked and maintained otherwise this will become a common thing
@CourtAboveTheCut it's the sensible thing to do... but... if it costs money, which board of directors, or govt dept, Won't put if off until disaster strikes?... It's a behavioural certainty that British people will act too late... Shareholder dividends, and govt budget cuts always take priority... It'll be interesting to see if a private company tries to get govt (taxpayers) money to fix the problem...
Thank you, very informative piece. Hope that this is a wake up call and that the right level of funding and support is provided for our (sometimes very old) canal network.
How can we / I help? , what are the initiatives and awe es campaigns which I can support? Earlier this year, together with friends, we took a day trip to Llangollen cancel and traversed the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. What a fabulous day and opened my eyes to this amazing treasure.
@@CourtAboveTheCut Surely Peel Holdings will have liability insurance for such outcomes, in which case funds should be available to repair the immediate damage and put other mitigation in place. Not that I think they give a tuppeny fuck about the plight of a few narrowboaters.....who knows, perhaps they could use some of the payout to install ground loop heating along the entire length of the cut, plumb it into their canal front housing developments and gain some 'greenie points' ? Just a thought....
I blundered into the breach on a new years day walk from my house in Altrincham in which I had intended to use the embankment as a part. There had been a almighty rain storm during the night which some reports said was as much as 80mm and caused considerable flooding in the area (although my house was not affected). There are even youtube videos on the subject. However by mid morning the rain had stopped and the sun even came out. First noticed something strange when I joined the canal at Seamonds road bridge the canal was flowing quite strongly. Walking along the canal - this section is along the side of the hill below Oldfield Brow - there was lots of water still pouring off the fields into the canal. And this was several hours after the rain had stopped so it could have been much much worse earlier enough to raise the canal to overtop the bank. So that is my suggestion for the failure.
That combined with the culvert being located on the old river channel. The river channels were moved to accommodate water powered mills. The culvert is part of the river valley drainage known as the “old Bollin” for that reason. Tithe map boundaries back this up. The old channel has very unstable ground. Slight settlement may have made this the lowest point of the bank(in the worst possible place).
Thanks for this concise and comprehensive explanation. I was shocked to hear that this happened again at the same spot . I am from Dallam Warrington originally and have always had a soft spot for early canals. I believe it was Brindley who surveyed and supervised the building of the Cut and am surprised he overlooked such a fundamental problem of infiltration and permeability.
Great video and very well explained. I've seen all Josh's work on this and I'm pretty sure he mentioned the culvert theory to. Now I've seen this I'm sure your'e both right. The flooding on the opposite side of the breach speaks volumes as to how much pressure there was rushing through the culvert and eroding everything around it. Water, an unstoppable force in this case.
Very informative footage here, all these various UA-cam videos are far more detailed than anything you'll ever see on mainstream TV etc. I've also been following Taylors aboard a Narrowboat too.
The problem is it’s already old news. The news just churns out the basics all the time, even the local stuff probably doesn’t get the coverage it should
Brilliant commentary and info buddy. Near where i live in upstate New York, along the Erie canal is the Holley canal falls, one of several spillways designed and built in as part of a method to manage water levels. These lovely waterfalls and associated parks and. Creeks, along with structures designed to obstruct water flow near elevated areas in an emergency.
Thank you. I've been waiting for some reasoned (and reasonable) analysis and you have presented much to think about. We will see what the engineers say as they investigate further, but I thoroughly appreciate your time, effort and skill with what is still preliminary data. I suspect the theories about the River overflowing its culvert being the trigger will turn out to be correct and made all the worse by different construction standards and practices from a couple of centuries ago. Once again, many thanks for this.
Very informative very interesting I’ve learned a lot regarding this incident on the canal and you have certainly answered all my questions . Thank you so much 👍🏼
Great insight, I wasn't expecting that. I walked over it on Xmas day, and in fact once a month prior.....but the intense rainfall was a significant factor, I measured 3" in my garden, and the rivery Mersey 4 miles away rose 42cm higher than the record ....
We will have about 10 years of higher rainfall to come. It was caused by the Tonga under sea volcano shooting immense amounts of water into the higher atmosphere. Great video, Thank you!
I'm a narrowboat - canal groupie😂 . Saw the OMG breach but found it difficult to understand what happened. Thank you for this vlog it has given me an in-depth insight - understanding All the best for 2025🎉 Jan South Australia
Very interesting theories and most have some valid points. Of course the official findings may some time away! I wasn't aware of the culvert at the point of the breach and just assumed the water flooded into the river Bollin and subsequently flooded on the other side of the embankment, I need to pay another visit to the side by side old maps and check it out futher. Thanks for the video!!
I’ve not visited the site before so it’s a little difficult to say what exactly it’s for, answers have included it was for an old stream/river, a farmers access, a cattle tunnel and it being an overflow culvert.
@@CourtAboveTheCut Look at google satellite view. There is a stream starting few meters from embankment, where the collapse is. Does not look like a culvert being too small, and the river passes beneath canal a little further. I assume that it is a drainage. Also, on that view the river is small, no flood above. So my idea is that the river culvert was too small. Flooded tho other part of embankment. And this softened it. Being soft, permitted to water from canal to leak and breach the drainage. But whatever the precise reason, the actual reason is clear. Too much water softened the embankment creating a slide, or a leak. And by the way. the weight of the water does not matter. Imagine the embankment having a top. The soil is twice as heavy as water. And if wet, even heavier. Landslides happens all the time even there is only soil and enough water to soften it.
Hi Stephen. You mentioned that this breach is the same place as 1971. I think it's very near to the same place. In the photo you show (which is available in colour) one can see the brickwork for the Bollin Aqueduct on both sides of the canal immediately next to the 1971 breach. The houses in the distance seem to match Bollington, and the pylon matches. Checking the National Library of Scotland side-by-side maps, these features were present in the historic maps. Checking google imagery, the style of the buildings we see match Bollington rather than those in the Dunham Woodhouses direction. So, I'm fairly certain that the 1971 breach was on the eastern side of the canal immediately to next to the south of the River Bollin Aqueduct, whereas this is in the western side to the south of the sewage farm. I think we can see the 1971 repair in the Taylor's videos - it's the section which is narrower than the rest of the canal with the sheet piling, some of which has fallen inwards as the canal bed erosion continues to moving north. Your suggestion of a leak into the culvert seems to, erm, hold some water. Studying the footage, historical maps, google maps, etc, I'm fairly certain that this breach is centred directly over the western side of the culvert, which seems suspicious. So, here is my theory (which is speculation with some reasoning): there was no leak from the canal into the culvert prior to the New Year's storm. There wasn't a "surge" on the canal that over-topped the bank. I think the water coming down the River Bollin started to flood near the mill, overtopping into the drain (we can see from Taylor's footage that the area on the opposite side with the mill is completely flooded). That sent a lot of water through the culvert under the canal, which had a weakness on the western side. The water in the culvert started eroding the bank from beneath, reducing what integrity it had, until it had removed so much material that the pressure of the water above formed a hole between the canal and culvert below. At that point, the result was inevitable - the hole got bigger and bigger eventually taking down the side of the embankment.
This seems the most probable explanation, flood water in the river washed out the culvert which probably had not been maintained for years. once the culvert washed out the canal would then collapse into the river flow. Not sure if your comment about quicksand applied to the Bridgewater canal but if so then saturated quicksand would act as a fluid and wash away with the river flood water.
For anyone not from Manchester/living on the ship canal corridor out east to the Mersey, the peel group are universally hated, almost in a comically villainous way.
The irony is not lost on locals that MSCC (Peel) are so far the only company/group to have won a Supreme Court case confirming that water companies can be held legally responsible for pollution discharged into watercourses - all because United Utilities was discharging into waterways owned by Peel, and Peel want to continue earning money from them 🤑 Peel are a secretive, octopus-like group who nickel and dime everyone around. Their canny purchase of Salford Quays and the waterways has resulted in all kinds of maintenance and upkeep problems affecting locals and tenant businesses in their MCUK complex (ownership of which recently passed to LandSec). They're difficult to talk to as resident, slow to respond, get mired in delays when it comes to improvements of the local area (or arguing with the council) and have overdeveloped the areas they own and manage with little regard to public services, access, longevity or suitability.
@@CourtAboveTheCut sadly :< i wish we could get together a beep load of people just like the old school navies, and just get it done all by hand, what an achivment huh, this sticks in my mind like glue, how they mannaged to dig all these tunnles canals, and so much more, all from just man power, true legends.
The good thing for the drainage of the whole area is that the Manchester Ship Canal is required by law (1885 Act) to be maintained by Peel Holdings, whose predecessors were required to buy the Bridgewater canal. Whether PH has any such requirement to maintain the latter canal in working order is a good question.
@@Vei2aC I think in the future most waterways will be managed by volunteers, like the restorations are now. CRT no matter what you think of them and their structure don’t have enough money to maintain over 2k miles of waterway
As soon as I heard that it was a private company or corporation owning the canal, I immediately thought of that common problem of maintenance, or more precisely the lack of money spent on it over the decades!
2:00 I occasionally build loose-covered banks and terraces in gardens, and always work on a rock/hardcore inner core deep inside the face with decent 'batter' (slope from outer edge of base to top). It's easy to forget decent rock/rubble isn't always available in the kinds of amounts needed for banks this size.
@@CourtAboveTheCut I suppose compensating for the poor quality local base and fills by further widening the banks would involve issues of land ownership, tree clearing, and lengthening the culvert? Thereby motivating the now failed sheet piling in 1971 instead? Also, wouldn't a true contour canal have curved around to cross the river farther upstream? with a smaller embankment?
Great video explainer. It says a lot about the spread of misinformation that you have to preface any mention of climate change with a ‘this will upset some of you’, but looking at other comments on videos related to this topic, there are individuals in the UK who would rather believe this rain is the result of a ‘chemtrails’ plan to invoke downpours by the government! I grew up in a Cheshire farming family not far from this breach, and have seen first hand how modern farming practices, with a focus on scale, often leave fields without any decent cover from autumn into winter (e.g. after cropping maize). The result is huge amounts of fine sediment being moved about by rainfall, where it ends up in drains and ditches, preventing them from serving their purpose. This sediment as you point out adds to the woes of any body attempting (or not as in the case of Peel who apparently no-longer dredge the MSC in Manchester) to maintain our waterways. As the climate warms (which it is, as globally acknowledged now), the atmosphere is able to hold more water, which joins the cycle meaning it falls as rain somewhere, at some point. This is some challenge for the CRT and other bodies to manage… Maybe we need better/new systems to manage this, such as additional mid/low-land reservoir capacity to absorb an influx such as the one seen in Manchester last week?
Yep 100% the issue is straight rivers as well, rivers naturally twist and turn, flood and hold back water, woodlands act as sponges and hold more water. Straight rivers it flows too fast and floods badly in areas it wouldn’t naturally flood causing disasters
If you look at the drone footage it's most likely the culvert was put under preasure by the stream that was in flood from rainfall. The culvert collapsed and caused the canal to breach. I think this is the most likely event when you look at the fields on the otherside of the breach that are now flooding quite badly because the water can no longer follow the natural path of the stream. Probably a combination of the two, the embankment was also sodden with heavy rainfall wich weakened it to start with?
@@FlashGormless I completely agree, there was an insane amount of rain before it happened so it could have even topped over a little contributing to it. I’ll be interested to read the reports
@simonpaine2347 and Peel Holdings was already pulling out of numerous development projects BEFORE this happened due to lack of funding so i doubt theyre going to be in any kind of hurry to get the canal up and running. More likely they will terminate both ends where possible then repair the stream that ran underneath to allow its natural flow again. If the canal is ever fully restored it is going to take many years. IF.
Thanks for the in depth info👍🏻 i was up there yesterday and today (i live fairly local) and peel holdings have started daming the canal today, just before the shoring planks/sandbags. It looks really devastating from the ground as well. A friend of mine who lives nearby told me there is/was a well known badger sett at the site of the breach, i dont know if that could contribute to the collapse in any way, but the poor badgers have no doubt perished.
Great analysis. Yes, a culvert collapse does seem to be the most likely cause. You also said something so important in your video, our infrastructure has been built on the basis of previous weather patterns and regional climates with some latitude for stress. Climate change will challenge it to the point of destruction in the future. Just pleased nobody got hurt this time.
on top of that there's all the building and development that's obviously changed the landscape over the centuries. It changes were water over the landscape drains to so some areas are left far more sodden and face more erosion.
Hearing rumors that Peel is considering not to repair this breach but block the canal at both sides. I wonder if it will make the canal unusable and create more breaches in the future during floods. Let's hope this rumor isn't true even though Peel is really quite now.
An excellent description of the issues faced when dealing with these old structures. Thank you. With the massive resources at Peels disposal a properly engineered solution could be put in place BUT shareholders……..! I trust those marooned on the drained sections will be suitably assisted/recovered by Peel in the near future?
Most issues like this are usually due to the failure to update infrastructure and do to repairs not being completed or shoddy repairs. Money is usually diverted to other areas or kept by management.
I’d say that’s the issue with it being in private hands but tbh I’m not sure CRT would have done any better with the lack of funding, we need changes to how the waterways are managed and that starts with an adequate level of funding
In Valencia they just released water from dams without previous notice. There are official proof of that. One of the dams just has no gates, so the water had to literally gush out from the top and, as the Hydrographic Office has no records of the water levels of this particular dam at the day of the tragedy, we have no idea of the outrageous amount of water that could have come out from there.
im at 5:49 and i know what your going to say, and im SOOO glad, i see alot of people say, its because of this and that, but its far from it, when i look on google earth, you can see a little stream or so coming out the embankment, and thats where the breach is, its been in my mind for days that this is the cause, i think this is what your going to tell us, so glad to hear it explaned in such detail, thank you ever so much...
Hi, Are you aware of the free app - What 3 Words Brilliant when you want to pinpoint an exact location It's now classed as an civilian emergency response Personal Location device (* not to be mistaken with a personal location "beacon" PLB ) on land and water.
@@CourtAboveTheCutits the little stream or small river to the south of the water refinery next to the river bollin, the part that intersected with the bank is no longer there after the breach, if you look on google earth, you see the before, there is a patch of trees, where the stream/river seems to just stop at the bank, this is directly where the breach is, i wonder if there was some sort of internal under erosion going on from this little stream/culvert/river/trench, it seems to meander through the feilds to the west, and end up neer to the river bollin, i bet it started at that point, and just like a zipper, kept eroding the dirt unzipping the pilings at the side, and with all the water pressure, and pressure of the dirt also, the dirt would of been super saturated, and any low frequency vibrations would loosen the rest up ready to flow like liquid, small vibrations causing more liquefaction, making more ground move quiker and quiker, it probaly started as a little trickle, i wish i could go there, its like the same with the 1971 breach, that was at the side of the underpass for the river bollin, it sticks out liek a sore thumb as a weak spot for potential erosion, a hard point in contact with soft unengineered dirt.
@@CourtAboveTheCut I did reply to this? with a longgg reply, im not sure why its not here, i really dont want to type all that out again, but yes, its a river, not a stream or culvert, it intersects with the embankment, not sure where it goes after intersecting the canal embankment, its right where the breach happend, internal erosion maybe, and as the ground gets more saturated, and starts to move, it can cause a slight liquefaction, and helps loosen the rest behind it, like a zipper unziping the earth around the pilings in the canal.
Not sure if you are an Everton Fan but I really enjoyed your Video. We used to hang around on the Bolton Bury, Manchester Canal when we was Kids. It also Breached at that time it was a big disaster. 1936 The Canal was never the same after that.
Haha no the exact opposite! I go to Anfield a couple of times a season and often park in goodison if that helps? 😂 I’m going to cover that breach soon, I think work starts this year to rebuild it but I could be wrong
Hi Steve. One thing that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned is that parts of the Bridgewater have suffered badly from mining subsidence, which led to the banks being raised (around Lymm, is one example). I don’t know whether this has been a contributory factor in this case?
Has anyone noticed it's the modern engineering on the section that's failed. 1761 most of the infrastructure was built and it's the supposedly refurbished parts of the canal what collapse. Modern engineering for you I suppose "just drive them sheets of steel into the ground and cap it with a 2ft² concrete coping, should be ok for about 20 years"
@@buryfc06123 it’s actually the section beyond the piling, pretty much where it’s stopped, the piling has come away because of the collapse pulling it further back
A really insightful engineering approach to understanding the Bridgewater Canal breach. Today we have much better understanding and should be using precast concrete chutes where new and old canal sections are more vulnerable or in high risk locations like town, cities and rural locations such as raised embankment sections. Its time to cultivate a specialist supplier of canal chute concrete sections and not become Luddite about earlier constructions and traditions which have FAILED.
@@philipbaker4840 most restorations use modern techniques, I can’t see why they can’t be implemented into existing canals. It’s all part of the growing history
Hi Court Above the Cut, thank you very much for doing this excellent description and explanation, it was always probable that the problem had historical origins and that would most likely to be due to poor original design, what intrigues me however is that all the information you offer was available to the current owners, combined with that earlier breach sure they should have known that a similar event might occur and some remediation effected before this disaster happened. Perhaps that might be on account of the sad fact that there is no legislation to enforce the effective maintenance of property, plenty of laws to punish other for neglect or damage but none applicable to the owners!. This should come as no real surprise of course because it was those property owners who established the legal system for their own protection in the first place!. Cheers, Richard.
@@CourtAboveTheCut Hi Court Above the cut, thank you very much for your response, while I do post comments addressed to the channel creator O do not expect anyb replies direct from same, it is just a chance to air my own ideas and see what springs forth!. I am therefore highly delighted to get such replies as your and will be happy to continue a dialogue, again entirely at your discretion. For this one I wonder if you realise just how reluctant the powers that should not be are to address any mistakes they have made and not repeat them. The only lesson we have learned from history is that they do not learn from history!. This canal breach is an excellent example, just a few decades ago it collapsed in a similar fashion just a few metres further south, where all that metal piling was installed, it must have been obvious to any one observing that this next bit was just as weak and vulnerable, why did they not do all that as well?. Now the repairs are going to cost five times more and all that earlier work done again!. One clever suggestion I saw in the comments was that they could install two flights of locks so that that section is down lower without embankments, that would 'spoil' the whole canal of course, all that clear forty miles without obstruction gone forever but think of the money they would save!. I also see from recent footage that the upstream flooding is even worse than before and the main culvert unable to cope with the extra water, that itself the product not so much of the rainfall as the inability of the mashed up farm land to absorb water. Another serious issue that some of us have understood form decades but the rush to make profits from agriculture to service the financial industry trumps all ecological reason. Cheers Richard.
@ I try to reply to every comment I get, you’ve taken the time to write to me so it’s only fair I do the same back. Unfortunately replies often don’t notify me but sometimes like this I see them. The issue with the locks idea is that you have to enter a river, that isn’t like by the EA now and it’ll take decades of tests and reports to even decide if they can. I think the obvious answer is a concrete trough aqueduct sat on deep piles. You are right they will just make the same mistake again and not maintain things. Yes from what I gather they are getting hammered by rain and snow up there, it kind of proves my point that it may have topped and eroded the bank
Culvert failure Most probable cause ... as mentioned lack of use of Puddle Clay as linning for Canal ... However Soil Saturation and Embankment slope angle ... also add in random materials used in the original construction .. Which ever way one looks at the issues its going to take time to sort out ... a lot of time . Being a Canal fed by over flow from other Catchments complicates the issues at hand ...
The biggest issue right now is to stop the leak at the stop planks on the Manchester side, they’ve not done a very good job so far and it’s draining the network in Manchester
My recollection of the breach in 1971 was that it had been initiated as a result of rabbits digging their warrens into the embankment - the soil being quite sandy in that area. I lived in Warrington at that time and it was reported in the local papers.
My partners dad lives directly on the bridgewater canal about half a mile up the canal on the dunham side, his back garden has a 6 inch crack which is still growing amd runs the length of 4 houses the crack is about 15 feet away from the canal this happened at the same time of the breach... i dont think its to do with the canal swelling and overflowing , i think its been leaking overyears and slowly washing the sides of the canal away under the footpaths ect, theres no other reason for it to happen if you look in the crack it goes down pretty far, so although this is a big problem i think its actually a much bigger problem than they currently realise.
What's the water level like, compared to normal ? It would have reduced during the breach until they stopped it up at Back Lane. Like Stephen says, water is heavy; 1m³ = 1 tonne, so the sudden pressure reduction on the sides would likely have caused it.
It failed where the 1971 sheet pile stopped (not at a the culvet), it probably failed either due to the large tree roots causing a leak, or as it was very windy at new year a tree went over, and it roots caused a breach.
Thank's for a very clear and informative update. Some very expensive and time consuming work ahead by the looks of it. They will also need to check other sections, once they know the likely cause - as might other canals, especially if climate change is a significant factor.
My brothers 40ft boat went down with him on it, he just about got off but his boat is under water now, thousands of pounds in damage, he's lost everything
@CourtAboveTheCut he wasn't insured because he is moored at a marina, he never thought this would happen, it was that night, early hours new years morning, when the water builds up his auto pump usually started up, but for some reason it didn't kick in. He had no idea until it was too late, he was taken to hospital and let out the next day. His boat is still sunk, he's talking to the marina manager to find a way to raise it. But even when it get afloat again, all his things are gone.
@@nonamespecified1262 Hi not sure how to get in contact with you, but im part of the local scuba diving club, we could possibly help attach lift bags to it and get it raised
@@CourtAboveTheCut Thank you for the offer, seriously, thank you. Fortunately the marina manager phoned around, one place told him it would cost £8k to raise it, my brother has copd and its in the advance stage, so i think everyone on the marina took pity, they've got a company that said they will raise it either this week or next week for £1600 which is way better that 8k, the council have put my brother in a hostel for now but he's desperate to get back on his boat.its 40ft so it has plenty of room, My other brother has a 40ft 2 boats down from his but it's going through a refurb at the moment or he would have let him stay on his. Just a tragic situation.
If you look on google maps, just south of the culvert, you can see evidence of where it has been leaking for some time into the field as the field is darker where the leaked water has dried up, and also a triangle on the bank where the bank has previously collapsed at the point of leakage.
Great video! very informative. Im surprised that the wilts and berks have planted trees and shrubs on the bank of their canal. Here in France the authorities are systematically removing vegetation from the dams along lakes. The reason being that although the tree's roots provide a bonding strength to the soil, they also provide pathways for the ingress of water. That is why we want deep-rooted plants to allow water into the ground following floods. Those same deep roots will allow water under pressure to find a weak point to start leaking out of an embankment. And as soon as the water has found a path, the flow will increase, sediments will be washed out of the pores and the leak will increase and become a breach. However, in the Wilts and Beks example, I think the "sealing" is being done by the new "puddled clay" lining that they have installed in the canal. As long as the roots don't penetrate that, and break the seal, then it will hold water. In that case the the tree roots are providing structural support for the embankment, which is holding up the clay lining of the "sealed canal".
The new planting is away from the canal, the trees you see near to the canal are ones that grew during the years it was abandoned. They regularly access them and if they are dead or look like they will cause an issue they are managed appropriately. They don’t need them removing at this stage so they are doing no harm
I was made redundant from British Waterways just before it "reformed" and became a trust that's now incapable of providing the necessary maintenance and upkeep. With the increased rainfall and flooding I can't help thinking that there must be an opportunity to use the canals and all the linked water storage facilities and pumping stations, to move substantial amounts of water away from high risk areas. This will obviously involve a little bit of inconvenience to some boaters, and a lot of work for the trust, but if this could be linked to increased funding to accommodate the cost of coordinating the movement of water and any additional investment that will be needed, such as bypass pumping setups, then surely it would be of benefit to everyone, because a fully operating and functioning canal system will be needed to make this work effectively.
I wonder if they are directing their appeals/questions/ideas to the right government departments? When you say the Thames needs the water, what do you mean? Obviously the best place for the excessive water is in the sea, so if it gets pumped / drained to the Thames and doesn't cause any issues for the Thames, then that has to be good. I kinda see it as a pre-emptive operation. Hours / days before excessive rainfall hits, any reservoirs/storage facilities used for the canals could be temporarily drained and then refilled with the excessive rainfall hopefully preventing flooding or at least managing it better.
@simonpaine2347 there’s a massive shortage of drinking water in London, the water that’s treated comes from reservoirs located by the Thames they can transfer water down from more water rich areas to the Thames catchment
A sudden tree fall with a massive uprooting could have been a trigger probably never provable. Looks to be a lot more large trees than in the 70s picture.
The thing is back in the day you had lengthsman managing the canals, checking these things but now nobody does it. Things like a tree that was too large and potentially catastrophic would have been removed back then
What caused it? Neglect; neglect by the Peel group. An embankment like that should have regular inspections by ground engineers to assess its condition.
Hi there. great to see you down at the ocean in stonehouse. Some of my hand reared ducks are now on this canal as they wanted. the breech on the trent and mersey near the anderton lift was a few years ago but a similar embankment. caroline
Thanks for the comprehensive historical background. I recently walked the Bridgewater canal from Leigh to Sale. This was going to be my next stretch. Looks like I’ll have to postpone that walk for some considerable time.
Really good video, interesting info, thanks. Not to detract from that, I personally found the background music in places to be a bit distracting, just slightly loud compared to your voice. Cheers!
Thanks I will take that into consideration on future videos, I will add it depends how and on what device you listen to, if you have headphones it’ll be louder than say listening on your phone, I check it on all devices after recording and it’s very random
Excellent video really interesting subscribed and saw that you have a few on lichfield local to me which i will watch and see if you have anything on hatherton. Side note, love the name not heard anybody use the word cut for years, i am 55 and my grandpa was a coal miner in 20s to 40s until he was involved in cave in accident and was sent to bournemouth miners recuperation home after hospital, all my grandparents called it the cut.
@@jenniferlaughlin47 I have one coming on the hatherton and I’ll do some more this year, it’s a little hard as it’s so lost! The new route takes it over new ground that has little in place so far
Yes i just saw its members only, all i can do at the moment is like and comment. And your right about it being so lost, last time i drove past the bridge near the four crosses thats been repaired so many times it was completely closèd off. @@CourtAboveTheCut
I will ask my dad what it was like when he was young (he is nearly ninety) and a wealth of local knowledge, thank you for replying it was really interesting
@@CourtAboveTheCut yes its fascinating i wish i was as interested in when i was younger and that we had the technology to record like we do today, i would of loved to record my grandpas stories.
Very informative. thanks. Can someone explain the mechanism by which the piling ends up in a V-shape with a lot of fill (2ft gap?) missing on the _outside_ of the piles? I can see how all the dirt on the inside is washed away, but how does the dirt on the outside get washed away? And why don't the piles fall inwards (rather than outwards?).
It could point towards the canal over topping and there are some reports of it overflowing in places in New Year’s Eve. It’s also where the piling is one long section all joined together so when the collapse happened and pulled it down it distorted it
I was thinking more along the lines that the banking hasn't been washed away on the outside of the pilings. More likely it's the base of the piling eroded away as the water flowed past it to the point that it pretty much fell inwards towards the middle of the canal. Then, as it's all interlinked, in then continued to pull it inwards along it's length. The part where it hasn't moved inwards may be had just moved inwards a few feet caused by the suction effect of the flowing water. Creating a gap on the outside of the pilings?
@@johnbenson4476 it doesn’t look like the piling failed though, what you see is from the collapse that took it out, I could be completely wrong! It was at the end of the piling from the last breach though so i could definitely be wrong
I wonder if that steel sheet piling is part of the 1971 repairs? I can’t decide if it’s causing more damage or lessening the damage, it seems to be causing a ‘canyoning’ effect as the soil erosion retreats further up the canal, this is keeping the sides of the canal embankment intact but it’s making the waterfall erosion effect happen faster, if there was no piling the water would be allowed to meander and slow down and break through the side of the embankment potentially.
I’m not sure how well concrete will work on an embankment because of weight. Also it’ll still collapse if the breach is due to overflowing or collapse for other reasons.
You would think it could be an idea to store more of this water that we are experiencing in new reservoirs that could be used when we have very hot spells of weather and water is at a premium, maybe even use it to power water turbines and create electricity (some water could then be pumped back up into the reservoir at off peak times. I know in many areas this won't be possible and it wouldn't have solved the reason for this breach but there's so many things that have to be done as a reason after the fact in this country rather than being preemptive. Obviously in this case the problem is with the embankment and/or leaks, but when minor incidents aren't responded to quickly, and in this case it seems like a private company which I didn't even realise was a thing in this day and age, but there seem to be no penalties from just ignoring the problem and just hoping it all just doesn't escalate into a bigger problem. I do wonder if it will be the public's taxpayer money that will have to be used to fix this, I hope not.
@@mattpotter8725 it’s so hard to get through all the red tape to build reservoirs in the UK there’s one near to Oxford which has been in planning for 30 years
@ another thing that needs nationalisation. I worked for the water board during the recession and it’s criminal how much is going to waste because of the restrictive contracts put in place in the 90s
@@CourtAboveTheCut You have confirmed that side walls of the canal were steel piles. From what I can see the canal bed was concrete. Had the engineers of 1971 been provided with sufficient financing I’m sure that they would have recommended a steel base that was welded to to upright steel pikes
I didn’t want to rock up and get in the way so Taylor’s aboard were kind enough to let me use the footage. I’ve got my own drone it’s what I started out with doing drone footage of canal restorations
@@CourtAboveTheCut just subbed 🙌 👏, done any footage of the Brinklow breech a while ago, Warks/Leic borders? Was working at the nearby quarry when it happened
What you wrote doesn't make sense, yes it's the duty for the government to restore the channel, the problem is that this needs money and a budget appointed. That may be a big delay
@@peterevenhuis2663 no it’s not, it’s not owned by the government or CRT it’s owned by a private company. If your wall fell down on your house it’s your responsibility not the governments
No, the railway boom was in full swing from the 1830s, 70 years after the Bridgewater Canal was opened, not 200. 200 hundred years later takes us to 1961, which is on the cusp of the mass *closure* of the railways - the Beeching cuts, beginning in 1963.
@@MartinJames389 I don’t k ow how I missed it on the edit, in my defence I’d got up early to film that bit and it was bloody freezing, my brain wasn’t warmed up yet 😂😂
@@CourtAboveTheCut We all make mistakes. No bother if you correct them, as you have. The annoying people are those who's ego is invested so they insist in sticking to something they got wrong.
@ the issue with UA-cam is you can’t really edit it without deleting, I think I might be able to add a text layer on after. Tbh you are the only person that’s mentioned it so I think I’ve got away with it 😂
@@CourtAboveTheCut It's very telling that the centre of the main breach is right where the culvert used to be. I wonder how they're going to get all the boats out?
I guess that would always have been the plan for Peel L&P. They no doubt bought it to redevelop the urban land and property. They specialise in waterfront redevelopment.
The excessive rain we have had over the last couple of years, is entirely due to Hunga Tonga volcano, throwing so much water into the stratosphere and what goes up has to come down.
Volcanoes have caused more climate change than what mankind has done. We should still look after this ball of rock hurtling around the Sun and not take things for granted.
According to OurWorldInData-Rainfall-Global the amount of precipitation has decreased relative to the years preceding the eruption. Which isn't to say that it didn't cause ongoing climate changes. The amount of water the bulk of the atmosphere can hold is relative to its temperature (hot places are muggy), so it's not necessarily true that the water needs to come back down... It can just e.g. result in less ocean evaporation. And the water that reached the stratosphere send to be stuck up there to a significant extent. But it was an interesting hypothesis to go googling about, so thanks!
That breech is so bad. They might have to build a actual Viaduct over it. Hard to say. But they really have to do something to get those boats out of there.
Actually he is wrong A canal is nothing like a train track The water weighs as much as the materials to fill teg canal before the train track would even go down a train track is a canal full of gravel and track on top
I kind of see your point but it’s not correct, not only that water doesn’t want to be sat on top of an embankment, it wants to find the easiest course which is down, water will erode that bank where ballast on top won’t go anywhere, it’ll compress in be topped up and strengthen things
@CourtAboveTheCut Still incorrect Under most train tracks is ALMOST a canal You think that ballast is a an inch deep it's feet deep Water doesn't not run off it full the canal like void for miles until safe place for release Fact is train embankments are vibrated constantly almost and weight more You don't know that fine packed stone is almost the exact same weight as water ?
You realise the royals contribute far more from their estates than they take? Don’t get me wrong they still have a lot of money but they give an awful lot back
Knowing that this was a problem in the past and what the best fix would be in the long term, why have they only just started doing the work to future proof it now ?
I don’t know, hopefully they are but as it’s a private company that’s never been nationalised I would say it’s doubtful. I think the easiest repair would be a concrete aqueduct
Thank you for crediting the Taylor’s for drone footage 😊
They’ve been very kind in letting me use it, it’s the least I can do. I didn’t want to be another person disturbing the lives of all of those effected by trying to get access
Very interesting and easy to understand discussion of theories for reason of collapse 🌊
@ thank you
@@CourtAboveTheCut 👍🏻
@ do you know them?
This is the reporting with deep context that I wish all the reporters writing on this for newspapers and local tv/radio news all watched before doing their articles. One would hope that could improve things.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m just a bloke with a camera 😂
Just a shame that the first thing he mentioned was climate change. Given that it also breached in 1971 and that the rainfall in Greater Manchester is no greater than in the 1950's and 1960's to blame climate change is simply idiotic. Get back to behind your sofa.
It is a major problem with reporting of Earth Science-related stories of any kind. The Earth Science community has a major problem at the momemnt trying to get the public to understand how the natural world works, and how humans impact the natural world. And it is not helped by uninformed, headline seeking journalists, who misinform the public!
But half the info is wrong
A train track for example is a canal filled with gravel which is the same weight as water and then put track in top
The was no soft river bed that wasn't adjusted
The whole stretch is known for being built on sinking sand discovery of half way through past the point you could halt etc etc
To the extent that the barge drivers NEVER MORED THERE
this was forgotten when it went to pleasure lands
The old breech was part of the entrance to the aqueduct
This is not despite rumours it was
There is 1000% a leak before the Breech
The lining was washed out from behind it before the Breech
@ hold the info is wrong?
I mentioned the breach, if I was to say on open footage it was someone’s fault because they didn’t repair a leak then what do you think happens to me when they come lawyered up? I can only comment on rumours that there was a leak, I have no physical proof other than images on Google which suggest the land colouration points to a leak
Nobody know exactly where it started and where has been ripped out as a consequence, I’d say it’s unlikely to be the aqueduct as the centre is quite a bit further down. The original breach was at the aqueduct so not quite the same spot
I said they found quick sand
Water in a wide canal is definitely heavier than the ballast of a railway
Great content, What a very knowledgeable man. So quickly put together. Exceptional thank you.
Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks
Thank you so much for your support
Another factor that has caused several breaks in our canal and waterways in the US are animals. Minks, beavers , foxes, woodchucks build homes near culverts, undermine substrate, which leads to slow leaks at first , then to catastrophe. 10-40 years of rodent damage can be slow at first to the point of almost being unnoticed, but still a contributing factor.
There’s the possibility it could be something like badgers here
they are still innocent
@@harridan. the badgers?
American cray fish like to burrow into the sides of river banks etc and they then collapse, it happens a lot on normal rivers so could be on of the reasons. Badgers would have been easy to see and then stop from digging in, anything bigger than a mouse would have been spotted eventually and appropriate actions would have been taken. More than likely a combination of things that has caused this.
@ they are only easy to see if someone’s checking.
There are crayfish in there, I saw some pics of them in the drained canal, I couldn’t tell you which ones they are though
Nice video.
A good reminder that Everything we build either requires continuous maintenance... or if uneconomic, one day it will fail... and we know, and accept this...
The landscape around us is continually changing, that’s why these structures need to be checked and maintained otherwise this will become a common thing
@CourtAboveTheCut it's the sensible thing to do... but... if it costs money, which board of directors, or govt dept, Won't put if off until disaster strikes?... It's a behavioural certainty that British people will act too late... Shareholder dividends, and govt budget cuts always take priority... It'll be interesting to see if a private company tries to get govt (taxpayers) money to fix the problem...
@@andrewwalsh2755 it’s greed not British
Thank you, very informative piece. Hope that this is a wake up call and that the right level of funding and support is provided for our (sometimes very old) canal network.
100% the government need to take a serious look at it, although this isn’t CRT water it’s a strong sign of what’s to come
How can we / I help? , what are the initiatives and awe es campaigns which I can support? Earlier this year, together with friends, we took a day trip to Llangollen cancel and traversed the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. What a fabulous day and opened my eyes to this amazing treasure.
@@CourtAboveTheCut Surely Peel Holdings will have liability insurance for such outcomes, in which case funds should be available to repair the immediate damage and put other mitigation in place. Not that I think they give a tuppeny fuck about the plight of a few narrowboaters.....who knows, perhaps they could use some of the payout to install ground loop heating along the entire length of the cut, plumb it into their canal front housing developments and gain some 'greenie points' ? Just a thought....
@ I’m not sure any insurer would underwrite that sort of thing
@ the best thing you can do is to support the IWA and the fund Britains waterways campaign, the link is in the description of the video
I blundered into the breach on a new years day walk from my house in Altrincham in which I had intended to use the embankment as a part. There had been a almighty rain storm during the night which some reports said was as much as 80mm and caused considerable flooding in the area (although my house was not affected). There are even youtube videos on the subject.
However by mid morning the rain had stopped and the sun even came out. First noticed something strange when I joined the canal at Seamonds road bridge the canal was flowing quite strongly. Walking along the canal - this section is along the side of the hill below Oldfield Brow - there was lots of water still pouring off the fields into the canal. And this was several hours after the rain had stopped so it could have been much much worse earlier enough to raise the canal to overtop the bank. So that is my suggestion for the failure.
I think there’s a good chance it was or at least contributed to the failure
That combined with the culvert being located on the old river channel. The river channels were moved to accommodate water powered mills. The culvert is part of the river valley drainage known as the “old Bollin” for that reason. Tithe map boundaries back this up. The old channel has very unstable ground. Slight settlement may have made this the lowest point of the bank(in the worst possible place).
@@williamblackburn2341 is that where the quicksand was found?
Articulate intelligent and informed. Give this man a professorship!
@@madedshot5 thank you
Thanks for this concise and comprehensive explanation. I was shocked to hear that this happened again at the same spot . I am from Dallam Warrington originally and have always had a soft spot for early canals. I believe it was Brindley who surveyed and supervised the building of the Cut and am surprised he overlooked such a fundamental problem of infiltration and permeability.
@@malcolmgeoffreyemblng5766 I just think it wasn’t realised, it was so early and things like this hadn’t been done before
Considering its all been OK since 1776?
@@emmsue1053 well it had several collapses before so ok is a strong description!
Great video and very well explained. I've seen all Josh's work on this and I'm pretty sure he mentioned the culvert theory to. Now I've seen this I'm sure your'e both right. The flooding on the opposite side of the breach speaks volumes as to how much pressure there was rushing through the culvert and eroding everything around it. Water, an unstoppable force in this case.
I’m a plumber, the first things we learn is water goes down hill and water always takes the easiest course.
Very informative footage here, all these various UA-cam videos are far more detailed than anything you'll ever see on mainstream TV etc. I've also been following Taylors aboard a Narrowboat too.
The problem is it’s already old news. The news just churns out the basics all the time, even the local stuff probably doesn’t get the coverage it should
Brilliant commentary and info buddy. Near where i live in upstate New York, along the Erie canal is the Holley canal falls, one of several spillways designed and built in as part of a method to manage water levels. These lovely waterfalls and associated parks and. Creeks, along with structures designed to obstruct water flow near elevated areas in an emergency.
I’ve just googled them, how cool are they!
This was very informative. Thank you for creating this I learnt something here. Every day is a school day! 😁
No problem, thanks for watching
Many thanks for such a high quality, informative video
No problem, thanks for watching
Thank you. I've been waiting for some reasoned (and reasonable) analysis and you have presented much to think about. We will see what the engineers say as they investigate further, but I thoroughly appreciate your time, effort and skill with what is still preliminary data. I suspect the theories about the River overflowing its culvert being the trigger will turn out to be correct and made all the worse by different construction standards and practices from a couple of centuries ago. Once again, many thanks for this.
@@johncassels3475 there are rumours of flooding on NYE
Excellent video, superb breakdown on what likely happened. Thanks
No problem, thanks for watching
Fascinating video, it’s a wonder that section of the Bridgewater canal has lasted so long!
@@Motormad196 let’s hope it can last another 200 years when repaired
All the people affected by the breach should start a group legal action against the Peel Group.
I get a feeling that may happen but they are rich enough to make it disappear
Very informative very interesting I’ve learned a lot regarding this incident on the canal and you have certainly answered all my questions .
Thank you so much 👍🏼
No problem, thanks for watching
Great insight, I wasn't expecting that. I walked over it on Xmas day, and in fact once a month prior.....but the intense rainfall was a significant factor, I measured 3" in my garden, and the rivery Mersey 4 miles away rose 42cm higher than the record ....
Just out of curiosity did you notice a leak?
@CourtAboveTheCut no....there were 3 of us, yapping, the towpath was exactly like normal, flat, and the Canal water seemed normal
@ I wonder where the reported leak was.
We will have about 10 years of higher rainfall to come. It was caused by the Tonga under sea volcano shooting immense amounts of water into the higher atmosphere. Great video, Thank you!
That equalises itself as you get less evaporation as the atmosphere is already Saturated.
I'm a narrowboat - canal groupie😂 . Saw the OMG breach but found it difficult to understand what happened. Thank you for this vlog it has given me an in-depth insight - understanding
All the best for 2025🎉 Jan South Australia
No problem, thanks for watching
Thanks. What a good video.
Thank you
Very interesting theories and most have some valid points. Of course the official findings may some time away!
I wasn't aware of the culvert at the point of the breach and just assumed the water flooded into the river Bollin and subsequently flooded on the other side of the embankment, I need to pay another visit to the side by side old maps and check it out futher.
Thanks for the video!!
I’ve not visited the site before so it’s a little difficult to say what exactly it’s for, answers have included it was for an old stream/river, a farmers access, a cattle tunnel and it being an overflow culvert.
Seen all the footage, nice to get a detailed explanation, thanks
Thanks, hopefully it’s right! 😂
@@CourtAboveTheCut Look at google satellite view.
There is a stream starting few meters from embankment, where the collapse is.
Does not look like a culvert being too small, and the river passes beneath canal a little further.
I assume that it is a drainage.
Also, on that view the river is small, no flood above.
So my idea is that the river culvert was too small. Flooded tho other part of embankment.
And this softened it. Being soft, permitted to water from canal to leak and breach the drainage.
But whatever the precise reason, the actual reason is clear. Too much water softened the embankment creating a slide, or a leak.
And by the way. the weight of the water does not matter.
Imagine the embankment having a top. The soil is twice as heavy as water. And if wet, even heavier.
Landslides happens all the time even there is only soil and enough water to soften it.
Very good and comprehensive report.
Please let us know what work will be done on this project as you continue to receive information.
JIM 🤩
I will do thanks
Hi Stephen. You mentioned that this breach is the same place as 1971. I think it's very near to the same place. In the photo you show (which is available in colour) one can see the brickwork for the Bollin Aqueduct on both sides of the canal immediately next to the 1971 breach. The houses in the distance seem to match Bollington, and the pylon matches. Checking the National Library of Scotland side-by-side maps, these features were present in the historic maps. Checking google imagery, the style of the buildings we see match Bollington rather than those in the Dunham Woodhouses direction. So, I'm fairly certain that the 1971 breach was on the eastern side of the canal immediately to next to the south of the River Bollin Aqueduct, whereas this is in the western side to the south of the sewage farm. I think we can see the 1971 repair in the Taylor's videos - it's the section which is narrower than the rest of the canal with the sheet piling, some of which has fallen inwards as the canal bed erosion continues to moving north.
Your suggestion of a leak into the culvert seems to, erm, hold some water. Studying the footage, historical maps, google maps, etc, I'm fairly certain that this breach is centred directly over the western side of the culvert, which seems suspicious.
So, here is my theory (which is speculation with some reasoning): there was no leak from the canal into the culvert prior to the New Year's storm. There wasn't a "surge" on the canal that over-topped the bank. I think the water coming down the River Bollin started to flood near the mill, overtopping into the drain (we can see from Taylor's footage that the area on the opposite side with the mill is completely flooded). That sent a lot of water through the culvert under the canal, which had a weakness on the western side. The water in the culvert started eroding the bank from beneath, reducing what integrity it had, until it had removed so much material that the pressure of the water above formed a hole between the canal and culvert below. At that point, the result was inevitable - the hole got bigger and bigger eventually taking down the side of the embankment.
Oh I thought it was the same side just slightly further down, I’ll have to get some more maps out 😂 thanks for the info!
This seems the most probable explanation, flood water in the river washed out the culvert which probably had not been maintained for years. once the culvert washed out the canal would then collapse into the river flow. Not sure if your comment about quicksand applied to the Bridgewater canal but if so then saturated quicksand would act as a fluid and wash away with the river flood water.
@ yes, the 1971 report on the collapse found quicksand
@@CourtAboveTheCut And that's how Peel will get away with this.
@@markdale7808 there will be a way, the group are too wealthy to take blame
For anyone not from Manchester/living on the ship canal corridor out east to the Mersey, the peel group are universally hated, almost in a comically villainous way.
Yeah I don’t hear many good words, the Wikipedia list of controversies is one of the longer ones out there
The irony is not lost on locals that MSCC (Peel) are so far the only company/group to have won a Supreme Court case confirming that water companies can be held legally responsible for pollution discharged into watercourses - all because United Utilities was discharging into waterways owned by Peel, and Peel want to continue earning money from them 🤑
Peel are a secretive, octopus-like group who nickel and dime everyone around. Their canny purchase of Salford Quays and the waterways has resulted in all kinds of maintenance and upkeep problems affecting locals and tenant businesses in their MCUK complex (ownership of which recently passed to LandSec). They're difficult to talk to as resident, slow to respond, get mired in delays when it comes to improvements of the local area (or arguing with the council) and have overdeveloped the areas they own and manage with little regard to public services, access, longevity or suitability.
@@CourtAboveTheCut sadly :< i wish we could get together a beep load of people just like the old school navies, and just get it done all by hand, what an achivment huh, this sticks in my mind like glue, how they mannaged to dig all these tunnles canals, and so much more, all from just man power, true legends.
The good thing for the drainage of the whole area is that the Manchester Ship Canal is required by law (1885 Act) to be maintained by Peel Holdings, whose predecessors were required to buy the Bridgewater canal. Whether PH has any such requirement to maintain the latter canal in working order is a good question.
@@Vei2aC I think in the future most waterways will be managed by volunteers, like the restorations are now. CRT no matter what you think of them and their structure don’t have enough money to maintain over 2k miles of waterway
As soon as I heard that it was a private company or corporation owning the canal, I immediately thought of that common problem of maintenance, or more precisely the lack of money spent on it over the decades!
The group aren’t known for maintaining it to a high level
Not to mention they're not going to want to pay to fix it, and good luck finding spare public money these days
@CourtAboveTheCut this could be a prime cause with that little river intersecting it.
@@Culky in my opinion if the government pays to repair then it comes out of private ownership but we know they have no back bone
The government is a corporation!
Very interesting video ! Thank you for sharing !
No problem, thanks for watching
2:00 I occasionally build loose-covered banks and terraces in gardens, and always work on a rock/hardcore inner core deep inside the face with decent 'batter' (slope from outer edge of base to top). It's easy to forget decent rock/rubble isn't always available in the kinds of amounts needed for banks this size.
Even small scale the same principles apply
@@CourtAboveTheCut I suppose compensating for the poor quality local base and fills by further widening the banks would involve issues of land ownership, tree clearing, and lengthening the culvert? Thereby motivating the now failed sheet piling in 1971 instead?
Also, wouldn't a true contour canal have curved around to cross the river farther upstream? with a smaller embankment?
@ no you followed the contour and crossed/tunnelled when you couldn’t go around
I doubt peel will get involved in purchasing more land
Great video explainer. It says a lot about the spread of misinformation that you have to preface any mention of climate change with a ‘this will upset some of you’, but looking at other comments on videos related to this topic, there are individuals in the UK who would rather believe this rain is the result of a ‘chemtrails’ plan to invoke downpours by the government!
I grew up in a Cheshire farming family not far from this breach, and have seen first hand how modern farming practices, with a focus on scale, often leave fields without any decent cover from autumn into winter (e.g. after cropping maize). The result is huge amounts of fine sediment being moved about by rainfall, where it ends up in drains and ditches, preventing them from serving their purpose. This sediment as you point out adds to the woes of any body attempting (or not as in the case of Peel who apparently no-longer dredge the MSC in Manchester) to maintain our waterways.
As the climate warms (which it is, as globally acknowledged now), the atmosphere is able to hold more water, which joins the cycle meaning it falls as rain somewhere, at some point. This is some challenge for the CRT and other bodies to manage…
Maybe we need better/new systems to manage this, such as additional mid/low-land reservoir capacity to absorb an influx such as the one seen in Manchester last week?
Yep 100% the issue is straight rivers as well, rivers naturally twist and turn, flood and hold back water, woodlands act as sponges and hold more water. Straight rivers it flows too fast and floods badly in areas it wouldn’t naturally flood causing disasters
Very informative, thank you!
Thanks for watching!
If you look at the drone footage it's most likely the culvert was put under preasure by the stream that was in flood from rainfall. The culvert collapsed and caused the canal to breach. I think this is the most likely event when you look at the fields on the otherside of the breach that are now flooding quite badly because the water can no longer follow the natural path of the stream. Probably a combination of the two, the embankment was also sodden with heavy rainfall wich weakened it to start with?
@@FlashGormless I completely agree, there was an insane amount of rain before it happened so it could have even topped over a little contributing to it. I’ll be interested to read the reports
Thankfully this is easily solved by installing bigger cilulverts under the canal, solving the increased rainfall is another matter.
There is only a tiny catchment for that drain.
@simonpaine2347
Who pays?
@simonpaine2347 and Peel Holdings was already pulling out of numerous development projects BEFORE this happened due to lack of funding so i doubt theyre going to be in any kind of hurry to get the canal up and running. More likely they will terminate both ends where possible then repair the stream that ran underneath to allow its natural flow again. If the canal is ever fully restored it is going to take many years. IF.
Thanks for the in depth info👍🏻 i was up there yesterday and today (i live fairly local) and peel holdings have started daming the canal today, just before the shoring planks/sandbags. It looks really devastating from the ground as well. A friend of mine who lives nearby told me there is/was a well known badger sett at the site of the breach, i dont know if that could contribute to the collapse in any way, but the poor badgers have no doubt perished.
I did wonder about badgers, voles could also cause an issue.
Very well explained, I experienced this ,I'm currently on the manchester side we had extreme flooding
@@BenWard-m7z how are levels there? From what I can see they can’t seal the rotten planks they’ve been using
@CourtAboveTheCut I've currently got on the Rochdale canal, but all the boats are ground up here in castlefeild now
@ is the level dropping over the whole area?
@CourtAboveTheCut yeah all the way up
@ have you seen the stop planks they’ve used to seal it? They are rotten
Great analysis. Yes, a culvert collapse does seem to be the most likely cause. You also said something so important in your video, our infrastructure has been built on the basis of previous weather patterns and regional climates with some latitude for stress. Climate change will challenge it to the point of destruction in the future. Just pleased nobody got hurt this time.
Yes exactly, in some ways we need to reevaluate the entire network
on top of that there's all the building and development that's obviously changed the landscape over the centuries. It changes were water over the landscape drains to so some areas are left far more sodden and face more erosion.
Heavy rain has never been unusual and arguably isn't as bad or frequent now.
@@garymitchell5899 they had a months worth of rain in the early hours, there’s definitely more rain now, I work outside
@@CourtAboveTheCut No. I've highlighted the evidence that heavy rain isn't unusual but unfortunately you've got blinkers on.
Hearing rumors that Peel is considering not to repair this breach but block the canal at both sides. I wonder if it will make the canal unusable and create more breaches in the future during floods.
Let's hope this rumor isn't true even though Peel is really quite now.
They’ve been way too quiet
Thanks for the information. I’m actually surprised this doesn’t happen more often.
@@dougmartin7129 it will if the government don’t increase funding, this needs to be a wake up call
Big up for the lovely video and yesss for making joshes channel grow more he deserves it also!! Gotta feel sorry for them now its snowing 😢😢😢
They'd be in the snow whether the canal collapsed or not.
@garymitchell5899 yeah but talk about one issue after another
@@lukemorton8431 I’ve just seen his latest video, it looks very white! It didn’t settle down south
so this could take a very long time my prayers go out to all the canal boat owners
I would be surprised it it’s less than 3 years, if peel want to rebuild it at all
@@CourtAboveTheCut
I'd wondered if it may just be abandoned
@@johnnytwotimez time will tell but I think you are right
An excellent description of the issues faced when dealing with these old structures. Thank you. With the massive resources at Peels disposal a properly engineered solution could be put in place BUT shareholders……..! I trust those marooned on the drained sections will be suitably assisted/recovered by Peel in the near future?
They’ve been given water and I believe they are organising a pump out. The locals have been good at bringing them food up.
Excellent video Steve, very informative.
Thank you :)
Most issues like this are usually due to the failure to update infrastructure and do to repairs not being completed or shoddy repairs. Money is usually diverted to other areas or kept by management.
I’d say that’s the issue with it being in private hands but tbh I’m not sure CRT would have done any better with the lack of funding, we need changes to how the waterways are managed and that starts with an adequate level of funding
In Valencia they just released water from dams without previous notice. There are official proof of that. One of the dams just has no gates, so the water had to literally gush out from the top and, as the Hydrographic Office has no records of the water levels of this particular dam at the day of the tragedy, we have no idea of the outrageous amount of water that could have come out from there.
im at 5:49 and i know what your going to say, and im SOOO glad, i see alot of people say, its because of this and that, but its far from it, when i look on google earth, you can see a little stream or so coming out the embankment, and thats where the breach is, its been in my mind for days that this is the cause, i think this is what your going to tell us, so glad to hear it explaned in such detail, thank you ever so much...
Do you mean a stream that’s not supposed to be there or the one in the culvert
Hi,
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@@CourtAboveTheCutits the little stream or small river to the south of the water refinery next to the river bollin, the part that intersected with the bank is no longer there after the breach, if you look on google earth, you see the before, there is a patch of trees, where the stream/river seems to just stop at the bank, this is directly where the breach is, i wonder if there was some sort of internal under erosion going on from this little stream/culvert/river/trench, it seems to meander through the feilds to the west, and end up neer to the river bollin, i bet it started at that point, and just like a zipper, kept eroding the dirt unzipping the pilings at the side, and with all the water pressure, and pressure of the dirt also, the dirt would of been super saturated, and any low frequency vibrations would loosen the rest up ready to flow like liquid, small vibrations causing more liquefaction, making more ground move quiker and quiker, it probaly started as a little trickle, i wish i could go there, its like the same with the 1971 breach, that was at the side of the underpass for the river bollin, it sticks out liek a sore thumb as a weak spot for potential erosion, a hard point in contact with soft unengineered dirt.
@@grahamfisher5436 yes I’m familiar with
@@CourtAboveTheCut I did reply to this? with a longgg reply, im not sure why its not here, i really dont want to type all that out again, but yes, its a river, not a stream or culvert, it intersects with the embankment, not sure where it goes after intersecting the canal embankment, its right where the breach happend, internal erosion maybe, and as the ground gets more saturated, and starts to move, it can cause a slight liquefaction, and helps loosen the rest behind it, like a zipper unziping the earth around the pilings in the canal.
Not sure if you are an Everton Fan but I really enjoyed your Video. We used to hang around on the Bolton Bury, Manchester Canal when we was Kids. It also Breached at that time it was a big disaster. 1936 The Canal was never the same after that.
Haha no the exact opposite! I go to Anfield a couple of times a season and often park in goodison if that helps? 😂
I’m going to cover that breach soon, I think work starts this year to rebuild it but I could be wrong
Hi Steve. One thing that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned is that parts of the Bridgewater have suffered badly from mining subsidence, which led to the banks being raised (around Lymm, is one example). I don’t know whether this has been a contributory factor in this case?
I didn’t know enough about mining in the area to answer that so I left it out, I’m not sure I’ve heard it mentioned for the original collapse either
Great analysis and information. Than you.
No problem, thanks for watching g
Has anyone noticed it's the modern engineering on the section that's failed. 1761 most of the infrastructure was built and it's the supposedly refurbished parts of the canal what collapse. Modern engineering for you I suppose "just drive them sheets of steel into the ground and cap it with a 2ft² concrete coping, should be ok for about 20 years"
@@buryfc06123 it’s actually the section beyond the piling, pretty much where it’s stopped, the piling has come away because of the collapse pulling it further back
Canal embankment is 1 in 2 or 29 degrees.
👍
A really insightful engineering approach to understanding the Bridgewater Canal breach. Today we have much better understanding and should be using precast concrete chutes where new and old canal sections are more vulnerable or in high risk locations like town, cities and rural locations such as raised embankment sections. Its time to cultivate a specialist supplier of canal chute concrete sections and not become Luddite about earlier constructions and traditions which have FAILED.
@@philipbaker4840 most restorations use modern techniques, I can’t see why they can’t be implemented into existing canals. It’s all part of the growing history
Great presentation.
Thank you :)
Hi Court Above the Cut, thank you very much for doing this excellent description and explanation, it was always probable that the problem had historical origins and that would most likely to be due to poor original design, what intrigues me however is that all the information you offer was available to the current owners, combined with that earlier breach sure they should have known that a similar event might occur and some remediation effected before this disaster happened. Perhaps that might be on account of the sad fact that there is no legislation to enforce the effective maintenance of property, plenty of laws to punish other for neglect or damage but none applicable to the owners!.
This should come as no real surprise of course because it was those property owners who established the legal system for their own protection in the first place!.
Cheers, Richard.
It only takes one incident for it to become law, let’s hope mistakes can be learnt
@@CourtAboveTheCut Hi Court Above the cut, thank you very much for your response, while I do post comments addressed to the channel creator O do not expect anyb replies direct from same, it is just a chance to air my own ideas and see what springs forth!. I am therefore highly delighted to get such replies as your and will be happy to continue a dialogue, again entirely at your discretion.
For this one I wonder if you realise just how reluctant the powers that should not be are to address any mistakes they have made and not repeat them. The only lesson we have learned from history is that they do not learn from history!. This canal breach is an excellent example, just a few decades ago it collapsed in a similar fashion just a few metres further south, where all that metal piling was installed, it must have been obvious to any one observing that this next bit was just as weak and vulnerable, why did they not do all that as well?. Now the repairs are going to cost five times more and all that earlier work done again!.
One clever suggestion I saw in the comments was that they could install two flights of locks so that that section is down lower without embankments, that would 'spoil' the whole canal of course, all that clear forty miles without obstruction gone forever but think of the money they would save!.
I also see from recent footage that the upstream flooding is even worse than before and the main culvert unable to cope with the extra water, that itself the product not so much of the rainfall as the inability of the mashed up farm land to absorb water. Another serious issue that some of us have understood form decades but the rush to make profits from agriculture to service the financial industry trumps all ecological reason.
Cheers Richard.
@ I try to reply to every comment I get, you’ve taken the time to write to me so it’s only fair I do the same back. Unfortunately replies often don’t notify me but sometimes like this I see them.
The issue with the locks idea is that you have to enter a river, that isn’t like by the EA now and it’ll take decades of tests and reports to even decide if they can. I think the obvious answer is a concrete trough aqueduct sat on deep piles. You are right they will just make the same mistake again and not maintain things.
Yes from what I gather they are getting hammered by rain and snow up there, it kind of proves my point that it may have topped and eroded the bank
Culvert failure Most probable cause ... as mentioned lack of use of Puddle Clay as linning for Canal ...
However Soil Saturation and Embankment slope angle ... also add in random materials used in the original construction ..
Which ever way one looks at the issues its going to take time to sort out ... a lot of time .
Being a Canal fed by over flow from other Catchments complicates the issues at hand ...
The biggest issue right now is to stop the leak at the stop planks on the Manchester side, they’ve not done a very good job so far and it’s draining the network in Manchester
Logic would say that you need a controlled spill off either side of any embankment.
I’m actually not sure where the spillweirs are, you’d imagine with a river there that there must be something
My recollection of the breach in 1971 was that it had been initiated as a result of rabbits digging their warrens into the embankment - the soil being quite sandy in that area. I lived in Warrington at that time and it was reported in the local papers.
I think you may find a report will say similar about badgers
My partners dad lives directly on the bridgewater canal about half a mile up the canal on the dunham side, his back garden has a 6 inch crack which is still growing amd runs the length of 4 houses the crack is about 15 feet away from the canal this happened at the same time of the breach... i dont think its to do with the canal swelling and overflowing , i think its been leaking overyears and slowly washing the sides of the canal away under the footpaths ect, theres no other reason for it to happen if you look in the crack it goes down pretty far, so although this is a big problem i think its actually a much bigger problem than they currently realise.
Has this been reported to peel?
What's the water level like, compared to normal ?
It would have reduced during the breach until they stopped it up at Back Lane.
Like Stephen says, water is heavy; 1m³ = 1 tonne, so the sudden pressure reduction on the sides would likely have caused it.
@@Daytona2 apparently it’s been low everywhere around here especially in Manchester
Thanks for a very informative video. I wonder how many other canals are at risk of a breach due to increasing rainfall. Regards Keith
Quite a few I’d imagine
It failed where the 1971 sheet pile stopped (not at a the culvet), it probably failed either due to the large tree roots causing a leak, or as it was very windy at new year a tree went over, and it roots caused a breach.
It could have ran under the sheets but that would point to another issue, it’ll be interesting to see when the reports come out
Thank's for a very clear and informative update. Some very expensive and time consuming work ahead by the looks of it. They will also need to check other sections, once they know the likely cause - as might other canals, especially if climate change is a significant factor.
The network needs funding, that’s the only thing we can take from this
Nice one Steve. Great explanation.
Thank Paul
My brothers 40ft boat went down with him on it, he just about got off but his boat is under water now, thousands of pounds in damage, he's lost everything
Oh dear, is he covered? Sunk due to the surge or down the embankment?
@CourtAboveTheCut he wasn't insured because he is moored at a marina, he never thought this would happen, it was that night, early hours new years morning, when the water builds up his auto pump usually started up, but for some reason it didn't kick in. He had no idea until it was too late, he was taken to hospital and let out the next day. His boat is still sunk, he's talking to the marina manager to find a way to raise it. But even when it get afloat again, all his things are gone.
@@nonamespecified1262 Hi not sure how to get in contact with you, but im part of the local scuba diving club, we could possibly help attach lift bags to it and get it raised
@@nonamespecified1262 oh no :( please share with me any go fund me page that may be set up to get him back on his feet
@@CourtAboveTheCut Thank you for the offer, seriously, thank you. Fortunately the marina manager phoned around, one place told him it would cost £8k to raise it, my brother has copd and its in the advance stage, so i think everyone on the marina took pity, they've got a company that said they will raise it either this week or next week for £1600 which is way better that 8k, the council have put my brother in a hostel for now but he's desperate to get back on his boat.its 40ft so it has plenty of room, My other brother has a 40ft 2 boats down from his but it's going through a refurb at the moment or he would have let him stay on his. Just a tragic situation.
If you look on google maps, just south of the culvert, you can see evidence of where it has been leaking for some time into the field as the field is darker where the leaked water has dried up, and also a triangle on the bank where the bank has previously collapsed at the point of leakage.
I can’t see the triangle but I’d noticed the greener patch.
Great video! very informative. Im surprised that the wilts and berks have planted trees and shrubs on the bank of their canal. Here in France the authorities are systematically removing vegetation from the dams along lakes. The reason being that although the tree's roots provide a bonding strength to the soil, they also provide pathways for the ingress of water. That is why we want deep-rooted plants to allow water into the ground following floods. Those same deep roots will allow water under pressure to find a weak point to start leaking out of an embankment. And as soon as the water has found a path, the flow will increase, sediments will be washed out of the pores and the leak will increase and become a breach.
However, in the Wilts and Beks example, I think the "sealing" is being done by the new "puddled clay" lining that they have installed in the canal. As long as the roots don't penetrate that, and break the seal, then it will hold water. In that case the the tree roots are providing structural support for the embankment, which is holding up the clay lining of the "sealed canal".
The new planting is away from the canal, the trees you see near to the canal are ones that grew during the years it was abandoned. They regularly access them and if they are dead or look like they will cause an issue they are managed appropriately. They don’t need them removing at this stage so they are doing no harm
I was made redundant from British Waterways just before it "reformed" and became a trust that's now incapable of providing the necessary maintenance and upkeep. With the increased rainfall and flooding I can't help thinking that there must be an opportunity to use the canals and all the linked water storage facilities and pumping stations, to move substantial amounts of water away from high risk areas. This will obviously involve a little bit of inconvenience to some boaters, and a lot of work for the trust, but if this could be linked to increased funding to accommodate the cost of coordinating the movement of water and any additional investment that will be needed, such as bypass pumping setups, then surely it would be of benefit to everyone, because a fully operating and functioning canal system will be needed to make this work effectively.
The Cotswolds have been trying to get funding to restore the canal as they can move water from the Severn to the Thames where it’s needed
I wonder if they are directing their appeals/questions/ideas to the right government departments? When you say the Thames needs the water, what do you mean? Obviously the best place for the excessive water is in the sea, so if it gets pumped / drained to the Thames and doesn't cause any issues for the Thames, then that has to be good. I kinda see it as a pre-emptive operation. Hours / days before excessive rainfall hits, any reservoirs/storage facilities used for the canals could be temporarily drained and then refilled with the excessive rainfall hopefully preventing flooding or at least managing it better.
@simonpaine2347 there’s a massive shortage of drinking water in London, the water that’s treated comes from reservoirs located by the Thames they can transfer water down from more water rich areas to the Thames catchment
Thanks for the information.
No worries thanks for watching
Very interesting analysis !!
@@sja45uk thank you :)
Excellent! 👍
Thank you
A sudden tree fall with a massive uprooting could have been a trigger probably never provable. Looks to be a lot more large trees than in the 70s picture.
The thing is back in the day you had lengthsman managing the canals, checking these things but now nobody does it. Things like a tree that was too large and potentially catastrophic would have been removed back then
Read somewhere, someone said there was a Large Badger set in the embankment near the breach
I don’t know why I didn’t put it in the video as an idea, it’s definitely a possibility
What caused it? Neglect; neglect by the Peel group. An embankment like that should have regular inspections by ground engineers to assess its condition.
I doubt there’s any inspections these days
Hi there. great to see you down at the ocean in stonehouse. Some of my hand reared ducks are now on this canal as they wanted. the breech on the trent and mersey near the anderton lift was a few years ago but a similar embankment. caroline
I need to get down there soon and make another video, there’s some interesting history hidden away with the older routes there and the old mills
Thanks for the comprehensive historical background. I recently walked the Bridgewater canal from Leigh to Sale. This was going to be my next stretch. Looks like I’ll have to postpone that walk for some considerable time.
I’d guess at at least 3 years!
Really good video, interesting info, thanks.
Not to detract from that, I personally found the background music in places to be a bit distracting, just slightly loud compared to your voice.
Cheers!
Thanks I will take that into consideration on future videos, I will add it depends how and on what device you listen to, if you have headphones it’ll be louder than say listening on your phone, I check it on all devices after recording and it’s very random
Excellent video really interesting subscribed and saw that you have a few on lichfield local to me which i will watch and see if you have anything on hatherton. Side note, love the name not heard anybody use the word cut for years, i am 55 and my grandpa was a coal miner in 20s to 40s until he was involved in cave in accident and was sent to bournemouth miners recuperation home after hospital, all my grandparents called it the cut.
@@jenniferlaughlin47 I have one coming on the hatherton and I’ll do some more this year, it’s a little hard as it’s so lost! The new route takes it over new ground that has little in place so far
Yes i just saw its members only, all i can do at the moment is like and comment. And your right about it being so lost, last time i drove past the bridge near the four crosses thats been repaired so many times it was completely closèd off. @@CourtAboveTheCut
I will ask my dad what it was like when he was young (he is nearly ninety) and a wealth of local knowledge, thank you for replying it was really interesting
@ I’d be interested to hear, I love hearing about the cut back in the day
@@CourtAboveTheCut yes its fascinating i wish i was as interested in when i was younger and that we had the technology to record like we do today, i would of loved to record my grandpas stories.
Very informative. thanks. Can someone explain the mechanism by which the piling ends up in a V-shape with a lot of fill (2ft gap?) missing on the _outside_ of the piles? I can see how all the dirt on the inside is washed away, but how does the dirt on the outside get washed away? And why don't the piles fall inwards (rather than outwards?).
It could point towards the canal over topping and there are some reports of it overflowing in places in New Year’s Eve.
It’s also where the piling is one long section all joined together so when the collapse happened and pulled it down it distorted it
I was thinking more along the lines that the banking hasn't been washed away on the outside of the pilings. More likely it's the base of the piling eroded away as the water flowed past it to the point that it pretty much fell inwards towards the middle of the canal. Then, as it's all interlinked, in then continued to pull it inwards along it's length.
The part where it hasn't moved inwards may be had just moved inwards a few feet caused by the suction effect of the flowing water. Creating a gap on the outside of the pilings?
@@johnbenson4476 it doesn’t look like the piling failed though, what you see is from the collapse that took it out, I could be completely wrong! It was at the end of the piling from the last breach though so i could definitely be wrong
Hello Boss , If the canal is drained for too long wont the clay dry out and cause more problem ?
Yes, it’ll start to crack
I wonder if that steel sheet piling is part of the 1971 repairs? I can’t decide if it’s causing more damage or lessening the damage, it seems to be causing a ‘canyoning’ effect as the soil erosion retreats further up the canal, this is keeping the sides of the canal embankment intact but it’s making the waterfall erosion effect happen faster, if there was no piling the water would be allowed to meander and slow down and break through the side of the embankment potentially.
It is and yes it’s probably not helping as its structure has gone
Solid walls, often made of brick or stone, are very common in canals.
@@garymitchell5899 yes but bricks and blocks are all added weight to the structure on an embankment
If they clean silt out and lined the wall's and bottom with concret .
And look's like the water got behind metal sheeting in the wall of the canal .
I’m not sure how well concrete will work on an embankment because of weight. Also it’ll still collapse if the breach is due to overflowing or collapse for other reasons.
V interesting thanks !
No problem thanks for watching
You would think it could be an idea to store more of this water that we are experiencing in new reservoirs that could be used when we have very hot spells of weather and water is at a premium, maybe even use it to power water turbines and create electricity (some water could then be pumped back up into the reservoir at off peak times. I know in many areas this won't be possible and it wouldn't have solved the reason for this breach but there's so many things that have to be done as a reason after the fact in this country rather than being preemptive.
Obviously in this case the problem is with the embankment and/or leaks, but when minor incidents aren't responded to quickly, and in this case it seems like a private company which I didn't even realise was a thing in this day and age, but there seem to be no penalties from just ignoring the problem and just hoping it all just doesn't escalate into a bigger problem. I do wonder if it will be the public's taxpayer money that will have to be used to fix this, I hope not.
@@mattpotter8725 it’s so hard to get through all the red tape to build reservoirs in the UK there’s one near to Oxford which has been in planning for 30 years
@CourtAboveTheCut Yeh, and it costs money that our privatised water companies don't want to spend.
@ another thing that needs nationalisation. I worked for the water board during the recession and it’s criminal how much is going to waste because of the restrictive contracts put in place in the 90s
Really good explanation, have you seen the height of the embankment of the Leeds & Liverpool canal through one of the Lancashire towns?
No it’s not really a canal I’ve visited
@@CourtAboveTheCut You have confirmed that side walls of the canal were steel piles.
From what I can see the canal bed was concrete.
Had the engineers of 1971 been provided with sufficient financing I’m sure that they would have recommended a steel base that was welded to to upright steel pikes
@ I’m unsure what the vase was, it looks like puddled clay to me with the way it’s washed out
I thought the footage looked familiar.....
🚁 👁 💪 They're pretty handy at ariel surveillance
I didn’t want to rock up and get in the way so Taylor’s aboard were kind enough to let me use the footage. I’ve got my own drone it’s what I started out with doing drone footage of canal restorations
@@CourtAboveTheCut just subbed 🙌 👏, done any footage of the Brinklow breech a while ago, Warks/Leic borders?
Was working at the nearby quarry when it happened
@ no, although that was a landslip rather than a breach
Nice video
Thank you
Lack of maintenance from PEEL.
@@andyrothery6455 that’s a common thought
@@CourtAboveTheCut Well done for con-firming that climate change is the cause of my poverty.
@@adrianchetwynd1334 camera equipment is the cause of mine 😂
IF what I have seen to date, the canal needs to be rebuilt.
The embankment will to some extent, I think the other structures will need assessment
Doesn't look too good. It could be like that for some time by the look of it. Thanks for the update.
I wouldn’t expect much moment before 3 years
This canal will never be repaired unless the government does it
@@badscrew4023 I agree
What you wrote doesn't make sense, yes it's the duty for the government to restore the channel, the problem is that this needs money and a budget appointed. That may be a big delay
@@peterevenhuis2663 no it’s not, it’s not owned by the government or CRT it’s owned by a private company. If your wall fell down on your house it’s your responsibility not the governments
No, the railway boom was in full swing from the 1830s, 70 years after the Bridgewater Canal was opened, not 200. 200 hundred years later takes us to 1961, which is on the cusp of the mass *closure* of the railways - the Beeching cuts, beginning in 1963.
Yeah I realised that when I rewatched it 🤦🏻♂️
@@CourtAboveTheCut Fair enough.
@@MartinJames389 I don’t k ow how I missed it on the edit, in my defence I’d got up early to film that bit and it was bloody freezing, my brain wasn’t warmed up yet 😂😂
@@CourtAboveTheCut We all make mistakes. No bother if you correct them, as you have. The annoying people are those who's ego is invested so they insist in sticking to something they got wrong.
@ the issue with UA-cam is you can’t really edit it without deleting, I think I might be able to add a text layer on after. Tbh you are the only person that’s mentioned it so I think I’ve got away with it 😂
How many times ostovat apply in a week?
@@goutomkhan7664 I’m sorry I don’t understand your question?
Given the extent of the damage I wouldn't be surprised if it was just abandoned
That’s my biggest fear
@@CourtAboveTheCut It's very telling that the centre of the main breach is right where the culvert used to be. I wonder how they're going to get all the boats out?
@ cofferdams
I guess that would always have been the plan for Peel L&P. They no doubt bought it to redevelop the urban land and property. They specialise in waterfront redevelopment.
@@Daytona2 yep, they don’t care about the cut
The excessive rain we have had over the last couple of years, is entirely due to Hunga Tonga volcano, throwing so much water into the stratosphere and what goes up has to come down.
Volcanoes have caused more climate change than what mankind has done. We should still look after this ball of rock hurtling around the Sun and not take things for granted.
According to OurWorldInData-Rainfall-Global the amount of precipitation has decreased relative to the years preceding the eruption.
Which isn't to say that it didn't cause ongoing climate changes.
The amount of water the bulk of the atmosphere can hold is relative to its temperature (hot places are muggy), so it's not necessarily true that the water needs to come back down... It can just e.g. result in less ocean evaporation.
And the water that reached the stratosphere send to be stuck up there to a significant extent.
But it was an interesting hypothesis to go googling about, so thanks!
@@Juttutin OurWorldInData-Rainfall-Global perpetuate the global warming narrative, so they would say that, wouldn't they.
Has led me to do some reading up, this is true and false, that water will lead to less evaporation so overall won’t have a massive difference
Why don't they add some null-locks to divide up the length. i.e. just gates on the level.
Flood gates would make sense, I’m actually surprised they don’t have them
where would you even begin to fix that!
Lots of Lego 🤦🏻♂️
That breech is so bad. They might have to build a actual Viaduct over it. Hard to say. But they really have to do something to get those boats out of there.
I think an aqueduct could be a better alternative but potentially the costs are much higher
Actually he is wrong
A canal is nothing like a train track
The water weighs as much as the materials to fill teg canal before the train track would even go down a train track is a canal full of gravel and track on top
I kind of see your point but it’s not correct, not only that water doesn’t want to be sat on top of an embankment, it wants to find the easiest course which is down, water will erode that bank where ballast on top won’t go anywhere, it’ll compress in be topped up and strengthen things
@CourtAboveTheCut
Still incorrect
Under most train tracks is ALMOST a canal
You think that ballast is a an inch deep it's feet deep
Water doesn't not run off it full the canal like void for miles until safe place for release
Fact is train embankments are vibrated constantly almost and weight more
You don't know that fine packed stone is almost the exact same weight as water ?
I bet if this affected any of charles land it would of been sorted (with our money).
You realise the royals contribute far more from their estates than they take? Don’t get me wrong they still have a lot of money but they give an awful lot back
@CourtAboveTheCut really?
@@chrissyp7433 yes look it up. They don’t cost us a penny when you add it all up.
@@CourtAboveTheCutnonsense.
Knowing that this was a problem in the past and what the best fix would be in the long term, why have they only just started doing the work to future proof it now ?
The work was done on the earlier breach, I don’t think what they did was an issue though, I’m confident it was the culvert
Is there a chance that the owners will just sort out drainage and not repair the canal? Or are they under some legal obligation to keep it navigable?
I don’t know, hopefully they are but as it’s a private company that’s never been nationalised I would say it’s doubtful. I think the easiest repair would be a concrete aqueduct