Residents, community leaders and businesses in the Crinan Canal area have claimed victory after Scottish Canals confirmed it can finish its long, essential winter works programme in mid-April of 2024 instead of mid-May.
The community had protested that the proposed seven-month closure of the canal to allow the work was too long and would lead to unnecessarily extended disruption for residents and canal users – and a substantial loss of income for businesses.
They had demanded the work be finished by Good Friday on March 29, 2024, so that businesses around the canal could resume for the Easter holidays.
“We were aiming for seven weeks and we got five weeks so we have to feel it is quite a significant victory,” said North Knapdale Community Council secretary Richard Stein.
Mr Stein and Frances Macdonald, owner of the Crinan Hotel, have led a campaign to limit the disruption to residents and the cost to businesses which they say will be caused by the canal’s latest closure for the essential and complex works.
This will be the third year of the Crinan Canal winter works’ programme to replace existing sea lock gates that are at the end of their life and would not get through another season.
Principal contractors Mackenzie Construction have already begun preparations on site.
Scottish Canals has announced that last transit entry into the canal will be on Saturday, (October 21) with the canal closing to boat traffic at 5pm on Wednesday October 25.
Laurie Piper, head of customer experience at Scottish Canals, said in a letter to the community: “We are delighted to let you know that we have revised our winter works completion date – we are now working to a canal reopening date in mid-April 2024, a month earlier than we originally advised, and a completion date of mid-May 2024 rather than mid-June 2024.
“The lock gate replacement programme is essential to ensure the continued safe operation of the canal, however we appreciate the impact of these works on the local community and local businesses.
“Following local consultation, we moved the works start date back to the end of October.
“In addition, our engineering team and our principal contractors Mackenzie Construction have been working hard behind the scenes with support from our partners Argyll and Bute Council, to investigate new methods of working to further reduce the impact of the works.
“We are pleased to have now received approval for the commissioning of an innovative ‘over-lock crane platform’. This method of working has been in development for a year and is a first for Scottish Canals.
“The crane platform is a modular system, with our design manufactured for us in Coatbridge; while the system is in use elsewhere, it is rarely seen at the scale required for our works. The platform sections will be floated along the canal to the works site to ensure minimal local disruption during their delivery.
“The new crane arrangement is required to lift the old lock gates out of the lock chamber and lift the new gates into place, as well as for various other activities throughout the works.
“Without the platform, the crane would be situated on the road alongside the canal basin, requiring multiple temporary road closures.
“The platform will significantly reduce the road closures required, minimising disruption as far as we possibly can.”
Scottish Canals said that additionally, Argyll and Bute Council has now approved its Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO).
“With this critical confirmation now in place alongside the approval of the over-lock crane platform, we have been able to revise the works programme,” said Mr Piper.
“A note of caution though; as with any construction works, dates are subject to change.
“We are committed to delivering a safe, efficient programme; the revised timetable is more challenging, so we will review this schedule in November and again in January to assess the impact of any extreme weather or unexpected site conditions.
“We’ll provide updates on these reviews, and continue to share regular communications, too.”