With great vision and tenacity, the Cotswold Canals Trust is reconnecting the Rivers Thames and Severn. Jim White will tell us about a particularly ambitious project: the replacement of a section of the canal close to the River Severn that was infilled after it was abandoned in 1954. The work includes building a bridge under the mainline railway from Birmingham to Bristol and a new length of canal under the M5 and A38. Jim had an illustrious career in aerospace before his new career, as a retired mechanical engineer, with the Trust.
The scheme is divided into three distinct sections:
- from Saul Junction on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal to the start of the “Missing Mile”,
- the “Missing Mile”, under the M5 and A38, and
- from there to Ocean Bridge.
Varied solutions have been developed to overcome the challenges and obstacles, primarily restoration in sections 1 and 3, and completely new construction to re-establish a canal route through the “Missing Mile”.
The scheme is further broken down into more than 40 sub-projects comprising individual structures or features, and the lengths of canal between them.
The individual solutions allow historic structures to be restored using heritage techniques and materials, and modern and innovative techniques to be used for new structures – to become tomorrow's heritage. Many of the sub-projects will be undertaken by local and national waterway restoration volunteers from the Cotswold Canals Trust and Inland Waterways Association. Other sub-projects, such as highway crossings or rail bridges, including Ocean Bridge where the canal crosses under the Birmingham to Bristol railway, must be undertaken by the responsible authorities.
Just a few of the solutions will be described!