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AS HAS been recently reported, the water level is being lowered on a section of the Basingstoke canal between Chequers Bridge and Double Bridge in Hampshire.
 This is to relieve water pressure on Hart Embankment to the south of Church Crookham and Dogmersfield. The embankment is reported to be in a dangerous condition. Its collapse could cause great flood damage to nearby residents, writes Tony Haynes.
Stop boards are in place at both bridges, and the heavy pumping equipment, as shown, is very slowly dewatering that long, meandering length of contour waterway.
In the wrong place
However, it would seem that bags of fine aggregate, lowered on to the bed of the canal to reinforce the stop boards, are in the wrong place at Chequers Bridge. They are better situated on the higher level side of the stop boards, so that any water flow will push them against the boards and help to seal any leakage. This has been done correctly at Double Bridge as shown.
 But at Chequers Bridge, to the east of the stoppage, the sand bags are sitting on the bed of the canal where the water level is being lowered and where they will have no effect. If the stop boards leak or collapse, then the sand will be washed away from the boards, not towards them. It would also seem that the stop boards would have been better situated on the other side of Chequers Bridge, where the wing wall brickwork would have support them more solidly against the higher water level.
Disastrous error
This would appear to be a very basic, but potentially disastrous error on the part of the canal rangers and/or contractors who are supervising the work. Does it indicate sheer incompetence through inexperience, or is there a sensible reason? Can this be another example of how getting rid of experienced lengthsmen, and replacing them with contractors or underpaid new staff to save money, can be potentially disastrous?
 Why are reinforcing bags of aggregate necessary at all, if the stop boards are correctly positioned and caulked?
Unless the Basingstoke Canal Authority can come up with an explanation, then it has to be assumed that those who are carrying out the dewatering of the canal don't know what they are doing. Perhaps the residents of Church Crookham or Dogmersfield, where serious flood warnings have been issued by the county council, would wish to investigate further.
All pictures are taken on the western side of both bridges. |
