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Calder & Hebble - what's new? When to open?


Emerald Fox

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I've just read that the Calder & Hebble is closed, and looking at CRT's stoppages it does indeed seem to be closed all the way to Wakefield.

 

Until the end of June I read ??!!

 

So.... er.... if you happened to have moored overnight in Sowerby Bridge in January, I guess you'll be granted more than the 14 days limit?!

 

Does anyone know if it's even possible to get to Salterhebble from Sowerby Bridge?

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I've just read that the Calder & Hebble is closed, and looking at CRT's stoppages it does indeed seem to be closed all the way to Wakefield.

 

Until the end of June I read ??!!

 

So.... er.... if you happened to have moored overnight in Sowerby Bridge in January, I guess you'll be granted more than the 14 days limit?!

 

Does anyone know if it's even possible to get to Salterhebble from Sowerby Bridge?

 

Yes, the navigation is open Sowerby Bridge to Salterhebble - including Salterhebble top & middle locks fwiw (fortunate, as that means we can still take Myark up the locks to the Navigation!).

 

As you saw on the stoppages site, it's 'officially' closed from Salterhebble to Wakefield, though I understand that most of Brighouse to Wakefield might be navigable.

 

We can't get below Salterhebbble due to Elland & Crowther bridges being in a state of collapse. We need to get under Elland bridge to wind outside the Barge & Barrel.

 

Have a look at this thread by Mac of Cygnet for scary update pics of Elland Bridge. The towpath is completely washed away.

 

Latest from CRT is they're talking to Calderdale Council (who own Crowther Bridge) in the hope of coordinating demolition of both bridges now the service bridge is in place at Elland, then hoping to allow limited navigation once that's done, but I've not seen a timetable for that yet...

 

In summary, your current range looks to be down to Salterhebble & up to about Stubbing's Wharf as far as I can make out.

 

Richard

 

ETA if you come down to Salterhebble & moor outside the Watermill, it's a nice walk up the Hebble Trail to Halifax Parish & the ringers there are very accommodating:-) Good beer in the 3 Pigeons or Shears on the way back down the hill too, so might still make it worth a visit!

Edited by Lampyrichard
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As far as I know Salterhebble to Sowerby Bridge is open, but with the Calder and Hebble blocked at Elland and the Rochdale also closed, I doubt that they would want you going through locks either end of this section. So you are probably limited to a 2.5 mile pound.

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... and at this end I'm told the canal is still closed at Figure of Three Locks as the towpath is now residing in the cut. No dates of dredging or other reopening measures have been given out.

 

Fall Ing Lock is closed at present for new top gates. Open Day on Sunday (6th March) and reopening from 12th...

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I understand that once Elland and Crowther Bridges are demolished, there may be a 'window' for escape down the C&H before the rebuilding starts, possibly in late Spring, but nothing more exact than that. I didn't know that Figure of Three was closed as well, and forgot to mention that Elland Lock is also closed, with a temporary footbridge across the middle of the lock, but I couldn't see what was amiss.

 

I hope that I and the rest of the moorers at Sowerby Bridge will be informed whenever there is a more definite timetable.

 

AFAIK there has been no progress on the two closures on the Rochdale - a landslide and a breach - but I would be glad to hear any different.

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AFAIK there has been no progress on the two closures on the Rochdale - a landslide and a breach - but I would be glad to hear any different.

 

I walked past both about 3 weeks ago, and there had been some preparatory work at both, but no substantive progress.

 

According to the CRT website the canal is closed from Sowerby Bridge to Summit until further notice, but nothing seems to have been updated since late January.,

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As I understand it the Rochdale is stuck with the landslip as the ownership of the slipped land is still unknown, which means getting permission to proceed is proving hard to get. The lady who lives in the house at the top does not own it and she is in fear of her house moving, so its got legally complex.

 

The breach just requires agreement on the access

 

The third hard one is the access to the point below lock 12? where the river has washed away the wash wall between it and the canal. The structure is only 3m wide here so it is not clear how one repairs this, in this modern age of doing all the lifting with a digger and H&S (which I have to say I mostly agree with) Its a hard call this one.

 

I may now more next week.

--

cheers Ian Mac

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C&RT estimate the cost of repair to The Rochdale

and Calder and Hebble to be....11.5 million! Yikes!

 

It would be interesting to see the breakdown of that, first as an estimate and then when it's finished. But what is 11.5 million these days?

 

Thanks for all this info, it's good enough for us to know we can 'go somewhere' and not just round and round the basin!

 

"As I understand it the Rochdale is stuck with the landslip as the ownership of the slipped land is still unknown" - this I find to be entirely bizarre. Perhaps they just don't want to be liable for the damage and have made themselves scarce??!!

 

If the Calder & Hebble / Aire & Calder are not open until the end of June, it will make an interesting twist to our Summer plans... perhaps up the Huddersfield Narrow instead of the Leeds & Liverpool? Has anyone heard is the HNC damaged/open?

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If the Calder & Hebble / Aire & Calder are not open until the end of June, it will make an interesting twist to our Summer plans... perhaps up the Huddersfield Narrow instead of the Leeds & Liverpool? Has anyone heard is the HNC damaged/open?

 

The HNC doesn't seem to have suffered like the C&H and Rochdale, but I get closure notices at fairly frequent intervals (like one today at 'Culvert 12', wherever that is. If you haven't already registered for e-mail notifications, then it's worth doing so. Unfortunately whoever writes them often omits the E or W after the lock numbers, which is quite important really! (But you can go to a map on the website).

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ETA if you come down to Salterhebble & moor outside the Watermill, it's a nice walk up the Hebble Trail to Halifax Parish & the ringers there are very accommodating:-) Good beer in the 3 Pigeons or Shears on the way back down the hill too, so might still make it worth a visit!

Good ringing there too, by the sounds of it; a peal of spliced surprise major in progress when we visited Halifax Saturday morning and sounded very good indeed.

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I spoke to John Horsfall and Richard Parry this afternoon.

 

The current plan is for the Elland area to be reopen by the end of June - having demolished the knackered bridges etc. Replacement bridges will be built without (hopefully) major stoppages [rebuilt as beam bridges rather than arched]; facade work etc to be done as part of winter stoppages.

 

Figure of Three is now passable, but there is still landslip in the cut to dredge and the towpath needs reinstating...

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The Fox on the spot in Sowerby Bridge spoke this afternoon to a man in a van guarding the equipment at Walker Bridge which is the 2nd bridge east of Shire Cruisers' basin. He said 2 weeks before the dams there will be removed; yesterday I heard tomorrow (Monday) or latest by Saturday. There is no-one actually working there - I saw no-one working there yesterday, and no-one working there this afternoon.

There are 2 'fences' of metal poles sticking up out of the water either side of this bridge, there's no way any boat will be sneaking through.

I too heard that Calder & t'Hebble Canal may not be open until the end of June.

 

Do contractors like spinning jobs out for as long as possible? Does the Pope poo in the woods?!

 

Luckily, we like this part of England, and Northerners do seem to be friendlier than in the South of England.

 

Big 6 pub visited - thanks for pointing to it!

 

By the way, this to ask: if plugged into 240v shore electricity and Mastervolt charging batteries, is it OK for engine to be running and alternator also charging them? Does the Mastervolt 'intelligent' charger sense the alternator and shut its outpourings off? Or do they both keep charging the batteries until fully charged is sensed?

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Come and hear from the horse's mouth! CRT are giving a talk about the floods and CRT's solutions at the West Riding IWA Branch on Friday.

 

The meeting is at 8.00pm at South Yorkshire Boat Club at Heck on the Aire & Calder.

 

See https://www.waterways.org.uk/westriding/west_riding_20160311

 

 

 

Although being at home in Scotland I cannot make that, I (and many others I'm sure) would appreciate feedback on that.

 

I'm a bit dischuffed that there won't be even a brief window for escape down the C&H before late June, effectively cutting my cruising in half this year even if things go to plan.

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I had another call from CRT this morning to say the Rochdale between Sowerby & Hebden will be open by Easter (I thought it was already?) and the section through to lock 15 open by end of May - anyone heard different?

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It's navigable already/anyway, that stretch - we done it on 29th December, proving that there were no blockages and that the lock gates from 12 to 1 all open/close.

 

The thing is, there seems to be no-one actually doing much of anything, so no wonder it's taking several months.

Time to call in the Chinese Army - they'll have it sorted in one morning!

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Thanks to all on this thread and the others for keeping us up to date on progress and sympathies with those who are trapped at the moment and unlikely to be moving far in the short term.

 

I had been planning to include Castleford to Manchester via Hebden Br in my summer cruising, in July. If the C&H does re-open in June as is suggested, how likely is it that there would still be stoppages/blockages on the Rochdale?

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Thanks to all on this thread and the others for keeping us up to date on progress and sympathies with those who are trapped at the moment and unlikely to be moving far in the short term.

 

I had been planning to include Castleford to Manchester via Hebden Br in my summer cruising, in July. If the C&H does re-open in June as is suggested, how likely is it that there would still be stoppages/blockages on the Rochdale?

 

According to my source it's likely the Rochdale will be open before the C&H

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