Restoration
To help secure the canal's future, in 1987 the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal Society was formed. Despite the afore-mentioned problems, on 21 October 2005 British Waterways announced funding from European Objective Two Funding, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and Salford City Council for a restoration scheme at the newly named Middlewood Locks in Salford, which began in September 2006. Restoration was halted briefly by the discovery of what was initially thought to be a Second World War bomb but which proved to be a wartime American mortar with no explosive content. Pilings for the tunnel under the Manchester to Preston Line were completed in 2008. The missing Irwell towpath bridge, known as Bloody Bridge, which once crossed the canal's entrance, was replaced with an arched timber structure incorporating elements of the old Lock three. Much of the canal's existing masonry was been re-used, and where possible, the original washwalls were grouted and pointed. The original river locks one and two were replaced by a single deep lock.
Completion was scheduled for the end of July 2008 and marked with an opening ceremony on 19 September that year, during which the new Margaret Fletcher tunnel under the Manchester Inner Ring Road was formally named. Full restoration of the canal could create up to 6,000 jobs and add an annual £6M to the local economy. The total cost is estimated at £60M. The next planned major restoration may be along Salford Crescent.
Local volunteers have for many years worked along sections of the canal, removing overgrowth and tidying up the general appearance, and the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal Society routinely organises working parties. Currently, work is underway to install a new pedestrian bridge at Nob End Locks. Designed by public artist Liam Curtin, the new bridge will be built from scaled-up sections of Meccano. A new picnic area will also be built.
Read more about this topic: Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal
Famous quotes containing the word restoration:
“Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
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—Irving Kristol (b. 1920)
“I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell disease.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)