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Kennet & Avon Canal: Bridge 62, West Mills Swingbrdge


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Might pop into Newbury and have a wave on Monday then . Back in at Frouds for a couple of weeks now . So will give you a wave Quordon No 3 when we go past . Are you on the moorings above Aldermaston lock or in the pound ? Bunny

we're above the lock, going for a chug newbury way weekend, well as far as the bridge!

whats yur boat called?

carl n di

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Well the bridge was moved today by a humungous crane, everyone got past who wanted to. Then they put it back. I don't think anyone fell in and I hope nobody fell out (with each other)

 

Thanks to a team of cart volunteers we were all whisked through town lock in good style. David

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Well the bridge was moved today by a humungous crane, everyone got past who wanted to. Then they put it back. I don't think anyone fell in and I hope nobody fell out (with each other)

 

Thanks to a team of cart volunteers we were all whisked through town lock in good style. David

Yes, your right, but i may as well repeat what i said on another thread, because Cart don't get many praises, but today was a good day for them and worth saying it twice!

 

"But your right, what a humungus crane it was, to my mind, well over killed

But I'm through and so is everyone that wanted to be!

And yes, well done CART. Every boat was chatted too in a very friendly way whilst waiting their turn. The banter was wonderfull and i believe that every one was happy, with the exeption of the first boat West Bound who gave, very loudly, his complete selection of expletives towards the Cart manpower, much to the crowds annoyance and disgust, which marked him out to be a complete and utter Tos..r!

A good job well done!

Nipper

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flippin heck that is a Massive crane

 

How much do ya think the bridge weights in at?

It's not so much the weight of the bridge but the distance from the crane to the bridge that means they needed a big crane.

 

"Give me but a fulcrum.. " and all that.

 

N

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It's not so much the weight of the bridge but the distance from the crane to the bridge that means they needed a big crane.

 

"Give me but a fulcrum.. " and all that.

 

N

 

Yes, the distance from the fulcrum of the crane to the fulcrum of the bridge was about at most 20 meters. blush.png

 

If that!

 

Nipper

Edited by nipper
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Here are some pictures from yesterday.

 

I'll make another post at a later date to rebalance the debate regarding those that live the island side of the bridge. Briefly though I'd suspect the failure is more linked to improper use, including but not limited to:

 

Striking the bridge with a barge / vessel.

Failure to reseat bridge in lowered position after use (it drops down after closure).

Continual mis-usage by untrained / clueless pleasure boaters.

 

All of which happen more regularly then you'd think.

 

Following the lift it appears that the bridge is now in a fixed 'closed' position with the hydraulic mechanism being taken away by CRT for possible repairs??

 

20151012110106111.jpg

 

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20151012140710018.jpg

 

20151012141142772.jpg

 

20151012142146405.jpg

 

PS. I do not claim to own the bridge.

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Here are some pictures from yesterday.

 

I'll make another post at a later date to rebalance the debate regarding those that live the island side of the bridge. Briefly though I'd suspect the failure is more linked to improper use, including but not limited to:

 

Striking the bridge with a barge / vessel.

Failure to reseat bridge in lowered position after use (it drops down after closure).

Continual mis-usage by untrained / clueless pleasure boaters.

 

All of which happen more regularly then you'd think.

 

Following the lift it appears that the bridge is now in a fixed 'closed' position with the hydraulic mechanism being taken away by CRT for possible repairs??

 

Are you the man who lives there that assaulted the lady boater last year???? If so you very lucky that the police did not get involved, there were plenty of witnesses!

 

Some bridges do get hit by boaters but I have never seen personally seen that one hit, though when the Kennet is flowing there is certainly potential for accidents. The locals do sometimes like to untie boats moored upstream but they usually go towards the weir rather than hitting the bridge

 

It is actually very difficult to fail to reseat that bridge so I suspect you have never worked it.

Once the close button is pressed the sequence runs to completion (including wedge insertion) even if the close button is released.

 

I suppose use of the emergency stop might leave the bridge unwedged but its hard to see why a boater would press that once the bridge has closed

 

Except for failure to insert the wedges what other miss use are you suggesting???

 

.............Dave

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Here are some pictures from yesterday.

 

I'll make another post at a later date to rebalance the debate regarding those that live the island side of the bridge. Briefly though I'd suspect the failure is more linked to improper use, including but not limited to:

 

Striking the bridge with a barge / vessel.

Failure to reseat bridge in lowered position after use (it drops down after closure).

Continual mis-usage by untrained / clueless pleasure boaters.

 

All of which happen more regularly then you'd think.

 

Following the lift it appears that the bridge is now in a fixed 'closed' position with the hydraulic mechanism being taken away by CRT for possible repairs??

 

 

 

PS. I do not claim to own the bridge.

 

Have you ever used a boat?

Have you ever navigated through this bridge?

 

How can the bridge fail to seat when it appears to be an automatic system?

 

How do you propose to train boaters?

Please explain what "clueless pleasure boaters" are?

 

Has this bridge ever been used by vehicles exceeding the weight limit?

If so, how often?

 

Perhaps the answer is to remove the vehicular rights over the bridge and just put in a simple foot bridge?

 

Have you ever been aggressive against boaters using this bridge?

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Perhaps it should be replaced with a fixed foot bridge, much easier and less costly to maintain.

In my experience, swing bridges, such as this one, suffer most damage due to vehicles being driven over them when they are not properly seated.

 

Keith

 

There is only a very small number of vehicles using that bridge and so they should be very grateful that CaRT maintain it!

 

What is sad is that West Mllls is a very pretty place to moor for the night, and a good place to visit Newbury from (as Victoria park can be a bit dodgy) but a small number of locals are anti-boater and are getting West Mills an increasingly bad reputation amongst boaters. A large number of hire boaters stop there and go into Newbury to spend their money.

 

There used to be a contingent of "gentlemen (and ladies) of the road" who hung about in the little park there and drank cider etc. Never had any trouble from them, its the people from the very nice houses that make the trouble!

 

............Dave

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We've no idea how to use the bridge (dont need to), but it does ocassionally not close correctly, it goes to the 'close' but not 'down' position, if that makes sense - leaving it about 5/6 inches above ground level.

 

Also, we've never threatened any boaters - why would you suggest we had? Because we live on the island? Genuinely, if this incident did occur (news to us) and there was witnesses why wasn't the police involved? Genuine question...

 

Only registered here to share the pics and we get sniped at for giving an alternative perspective. All the instances we mentioned happen, they are not made up for dramatic effect. Please do stop and think who sees more of the activity here, those that live with the bridge daily or those that periodically pass through (but are of course canal jedi masters).

 

Without knowing the full history, we suspect traffic (of some sort) over a bridge in West Mills and canal navigation were very much linked. The Hovis mill (originally on the island) would have needed both the canal transport and carting over the bridge at a guess.

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Having read f1sav's post I didn't find it particularly anti-boater or even particularly finger pointing, so I'm not sure why he/she got some quite aggressive replies. I have seen things bumped into by boats, pleasure boaters not excepted, and I have seen some clueless boaters too. It's not a huge leap to think there could be such a thing as a clueless pleasure boater who bumps into things occasionally! :)

 

Is there a back story here some of us are missing?

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The new poster talked of "Clueless" boaters in his very first post so I have assumed he is one of the West Mills residents who exhibits anti-social behaviour towards boaters, if I was hasty then I apologise.

 

To get this in perspective, I like West Mills and have family living n Newbury.

We used to visit West Mills often but now we pass through just twice each year and rarely stay more than one night. On our last 4 visits we have witnessed or been been subject to antisocial/criminal behaviour from locals on every single occasion. (and not talking about kids here). Maybe this is just bad luck.

 

If the bridge really is getting left unwedged then this should have be reported to CaRT so they could have worked out what was going wrong because as I said earlier it is not easy to do this. Maybe the small number of locals who drive over could get BW keys and check the bridge before they drive over it! Hopefully the major overhaul and new control panel due in January will resolve this anyway. Maybe this is why the bridge is getting a new control panel?..

 

I do not know exactly what happens when emergency stop is pressed.on this swing bridge The road barriers are manual and not linked to the control panel in any way, I have once seen the bridge swung with the barriers still up. I assume with the new controls it will be impossible for the barriers to raise if the wedges fail.

Some of the bridges on the L&L lock out totally if emergency stop is pressed. There is no user reset and CaRT have to visit.to do the reset. I hope we don't get one like that

 

..........Dave

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We've no idea how to use the bridge (dont need to), but it does ocassionally not close correctly, it goes to the 'close' but not 'down' position, if that makes sense - leaving it about 5/6 inches above ground level.

 

Assuming this is a fully automated bridge which needs a CRT key to operate, then the system shouldn't allow the sequence to end and the key to be removed until sensors have detected that the wedges are fully home. So when there is a level difference is there a boater's key abandoned in the control cabinet? Edited by David Mack
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We've no idea how to use the bridge (dont need to), (1) but it does ocassionally not close correctly, it goes to the 'close' but not 'down' position, if that makes sense - leaving it about 5/6 inches above ground level. (2)

 

Also, we've never threatened any boaters - why would you suggest we had? Because we live on the island? Genuinely, if this incident did occur (news to us) and there was witnesses why wasn't the police involved? Genuine question...

 

Only registered here to share the pics and we get sniped at for giving an alternative perspective. All the instances we mentioned happen, they are not made up for dramatic effect. Please do stop and think who sees more of the activity here, those that live with the bridge daily or those that periodically pass through (but are of course canal jedi masters).(3)

 

Without knowing the full history, we suspect traffic (of some sort) over a bridge in West Mills and canal navigation were very much linked. The Hovis mill (originally on the island) would have needed both the canal transport and carting over the bridge at a guess. (4)

 

(1) If you have no idea how to use the bridge, how can you criticise boaters for possibly doing it incorrectly? Look at the terms you have used in your previous post; they aren't exactly the most friendly or helpful terms.

 

(2) Is that the boaters fault or the mechanism of the bridge? Your implication is that it is the boaters fault, but others have said that the bridge is automated and cannot be stopped easily to do as you imply.

 

(3) You are being criticised because of the language you have used in your opening post. Perhaps if the language wasn't so antagonistic people would have taken a different attitude. Even in this post you are still being antagonistic.

 

(4) So it is possible that damage has been caused to this bridge by over-weight vehicles, and yet you have solely blamed boaters. Do you see why people have "sniped" against you?

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Isn't it always the way , miseries should be beamed up by aliens and the house sold to boater friendly people.

 

The person who assaulted a boater should have been hauled off by the bizzzies and prosecuted.

 

The assault was shouting plus some physical pushing/shoving/dragging. I was one of several witnesses.

The victim just wanted to get away from the place and continue her boating (and maybe resolving never to visit Newbury again?). I don't really blame her, I think I might have done the same. Without the victim I saw little point in calling the police though with hindsight I should have reported this because it may well happen again and its good for the police to know about previous incidents.

 

............Dave

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Assuming this is a fully automated bridge which needs a CRT key to operate, then the system shouldn't allow the sequence to end and the key to be removed until sensors have detected that the wedges are fully home. So when there is a level difference is there a boater's key abandoned in the control cabinet?

 

West Mills is a pretty naughty and very basic bridge.

The road barriers (drop down type) are operated by a windlass on a hydraulic motor (usual big black round thing). There are NO interlocks at all. The BW key opens a little door in the control box. It s not retained. There is no display panel and (I think) no proper instructions.

Three buttons: Open Close Emergency Stop.

Press and hold Open to withdraw wedges and open bridge.

Press Close (no need to hold) to close bridge and insert wedges.

A bad boater could press Close, shut the door, take the key and run leaving the bridge closing with no access to emergency stop!

Only thing I can think is bridge closes then boater presses emergency stop before wedges in because hydraulic system is still audibly running???

Its a quiet road but a busy footpath. Not uncommon for walkers and cyclists to duck under the barriers and cross the bridge as it starts to swing.

Nasty bit of river too,on the downstream approach its on the full flow of the Kennet.

Its on a popular hire boat route.

Very pretty though.

 

.............Dave

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Dave , I can understand that the boater assaulted was keen to get away and probably didn't want to hang about and deal with the police.

Without a victim I don't suppose the police would be much bothered if you had reported it .

 

It's a great pity that some locals are spoiling a good mooring and I think it needs CRT to get involved and put some pressure on the locals to behave in a more civilised manner. They can lean much heavier on the authorities than an individual . It's time they considered the safety of their customers as a priority.

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Dave , I can understand that the boater assaulted was keen to get away and probably didn't want to hang about and deal with the police.

Without a victim I don't suppose the police would be much bothered if you had reported it .

 

It's a great pity that some locals are spoiling a good mooring and I think it needs CRT to get involved and put some pressure on the locals to behave in a more civilised manner. They can lean much heavier on the authorities than an individual . It's time they considered the safety of their customers as a priority.

 

You are right as you so often are but I don't think CaRT work like that. One of our incidents was a confrontation with a local busy body old lady who reported us to CaRT. The mooring warden phoned us and said she had looked at our cruising record and could see we were genuine and good continuous cruisers but in order to avoid more confrontation could we move somewhere else? We moved onto the prime visitor moorings (cus we are deep and nowhere else to go) and so caused much more inconvenience to the local hire boaters. Boaters lost local resident won!

 

................Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...

From CRT website regarding closure of West Mills Swing bridge, as of 23 October:

 

23/10/2015 @ 15:37

We’re continuing to work on the part that’s broken, and we’re pleased to say that the bridge will reopen on a limited basis to boating traffic on the 9th of November. As the repairs will be ongoing, Trust staff will need to be onsite to open and close the bridge manually for boaters looking to pass through. We’re finalising details of how this will work, and will publish an update next week.

In order to fix the bridge, we’ve had to order parts from abroad, so getting the bridge fully operational is likely to take some time. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused while the bridge is out of action, and again would like to thank everyone for their patience so far.

 

-----------

 

We await the update ...

 

 

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