Snow Shovels in May?
Snow Shovels in May?
by: Will F.
With help from Pete at GWT , the fish and eels were carefully removed from the bottom of Dock Lock, the temporary bund removed and then the fun could begin!
The Western Depot Volunteers have been clearing Pike Lock of old bottles, bits of old metal and a lot of silt!
With the volunteers in waders, it turned out that using wide lightweight plastic snow shovels worked well in scraping the silt to the far end of the lock
The final heap of debris was removed with our mini tractor and mini digger …all the while, having to maintain a heavy-duty pump to remove surplus water and pump it downstream. Even so, canal boat and lock operations upstream still meant the far end stop planks were overtopping occasionally…filling the lock back up with water!
All this effort will allow stop planks to be inserted into the new grooves constructed, though the location under Pike Lock Bridgewill present some chalklenges. Then the section of canal between Pike Lock and Dock Lock (mostly) reprofiled banks can be rewatered.
