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Fradley to Fazeley Dredging


pearley

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9 minutes ago, pearley said:

Following the comments a couple of weeks ago, 2 tugs, a dredger and 4 hoppers have just been craned in at Fradley. They tell me they are dredging the whole length. 

That is good news. Having cruised up to Ellesmere Port outbound via Birmingham, we found the final stage of our return ie Fradley to Fazeley to be particularly shallow. There seems to be so much crud stirred up - decaying leaves, twigs etc - that we had to hit reverse more times than in pretty much the entire rest of the 2 weeks. Lots of graunching through bridge holes etc.

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Having now left Fradley, they appear to be setting up a Base in the field by bridge 91. That explains why the farmer left that end unploughed. Lots of steel planking going down and a Portakabin on site. 

Be interesting to see where they dump the dredging as I wouldn't think it was contaminated. 

They moored the dredger in front of us then attempted to turn it in the width of the canal. Was probably 6 inches too long so they kept driving the tug at it to force it round. Not a gentle push but  crash bang! Didn't succeed though then gave up. 

Edited by pearley
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41 minutes ago, Ray T said:

Ah good, needs doing. When we came that way in October, at one point had less than 4ft depth and our boat draws approx 2ft.

2 foot draught in 4 foot of water! You must have flew along. 

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1 hour ago, pearley said:

They moored the dredger in front of us then attempted to turn it in the width of the canal. Was probably 6 inches too long so they kept driving the tug at it to force it round. Not a gentle push but  crash bang! Didn't succeed though then gave up. 

It's comforting to know they've got professionals on the job.

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1 hour ago, Ray T said:

Ah good, needs doing. When we came that way in October, at one point had less than 4ft depth and our boat draws approx 2ft.

 

24 minutes ago, pearley said:

2 foot draught in 4 foot of water! You must have flew along. 

Ray must mean he found the almost 4ft deepest bit and it became shallower from there on.......

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5 hours ago, MHS said:

Excellent news. It’s been shallow for a while now, especially just to the east of Whittington near the poly tunnels, and between the A38 and Fradley. 

Not surprising it's shallow there.

When it's raining heavy you can see the orange top soil washing into the cut!

George

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9 hours ago, nicknorman said:

That is good news. Having cruised up to Ellesmere Port outbound via Birmingham, we found the final stage of our return ie Fradley to Fazeley to be particularly shallow. There seems to be so much crud stirred up - decaying leaves, twigs etc - that we had to hit reverse more times than in pretty much the entire rest of the 2 weeks. Lots of graunching through bridge holes etc.

Agree,  it has always been a sluggish stretch for me, particularly through the heavily wooded military danger area north of Hopwas. Strangely though I found a recent journey from Fradley not an issue, maintaining reasonable speed for my 34 inch draught boat. I even considered the possibility it had already been dredged.

There are certainly areas with greater need of dredging although probably with lesser traffic.

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Certainly from 1958/72 & I guess ever since to present day the bottom was always to near the top in the mid 60's with anything over half a load it was dig your'e own channel, loading a "bit more down by the head" than normal made it slightly easier for the boat to seek out the "deepest" water  still like watching paint dry syndrome thoughseemed the best trick was burst of throttle to get under way & then ease back on the throttle tiny bits at a time to keep the maximum way on with minimum throttle settings bit like playing a grand piano on the speed wheel

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