![]() The canal closed for nine weeks while the work was carried out. By the end of the First World War, the canal was in serious financial difficulties, with maintenance costs far exceeding revenue, and in 1920 the Ministry of Transport made a grant of £11,000 to allow major repairs to be made to the Banavie locks. ![]() Repairs to the locks were required in 1880 and in 1910, there were serious defects in the masonry. A suggestion that the canal should be abandoned was, however, circumvented. He described the masonry as "execrable", and argued that the contractor who had built them had not expected them to ever be used, but had somehow managed to hide the workmanship from Telford. George May produced another report in 1837, in which the Banavie locks were heavily criticised. James Loch, who produced a report on the canal in 1835 declared that the inn at Banavie was too small, and too far from Corpach, despite having praised it the previous year. There were some teething problems, and the canal was closed for two weeks in April 1829 while problems with the Banavie locks were rectified. Three steamboats regularly ran between Glasgow and Inverness, taking six days to complete the round trip. Passage through the locks developed steadily, and in 1824, an inn was created for passengers on the steamboats, by converting one of the lock houses on the flight. Construction of the rest of the canal dragged on, and it was not finally opened until October 1822. As built, the staircase locks were made 180 feet (55 m) long, rather than the 170 feet (52 m) of the single locks. The final two were ready by the end of 1811. By June 1809, three of the locks had been completed, and although completion of the flight was expected in 1810, there was a shortage of labour, and only three more were finished. In order to obtain rubble-stone for the building of the Banavie locks, a quarry was opened at Corpach moss. ![]() ![]() Consequently, cast iron swing bridges were used, and both the road and the railway at the foot of the flight cross bridges of this type. On the Forth and Clyde Canal, low level crossings were carried over the canal by bascule bridges, but Telford and Jessop rejected this arrangement for their canal, as they thought the risk of masts being damaged by them was too great. A decision was taken to arrange the locks in clusters to reduce the cost of the project, and so Banavie was chosen as the site for eight locks. It was intended to build the locks 162 by 38 feet (49 by 12 m), with smaller locks beside them through which boats carrying up to 200 tons could pass, but consideration of the size of 32-gun frigates and ships which traded with the Baltic region resulted in the size of the main locks being increased to 170 by 40 feet (52 by 12 m), and the smaller locks being omitted. There were two resident engineers, the one covering the southern section including Neptunes Staircase being John Telford, who was no relation to the principal engineer. Telford was appointed as principal engineer, with William Jessop acting as consulting engineer. An Act of Parliament obtained in July 1803 established a board of commissioners to oversee the work. He suggested that the construction of public works would provide employment for the people, and would also result in the development of industry, fishery and agriculture. The Caledonian Canal was conceived by the engineer Thomas Telford after he was asked by the government to look at measures which might stem emigration from the Highlands.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |