By Stroud’s thriving textiles
industry
by: David M.
During the summer the Boat Landing Stages team has been busy between
Lodgemore Bridge and Wallbridge Lower lock.
These locations are challenging with the towpath about 1.5m above water
level, and a steep bank meaning that the landing stage has to be cut into the
bank. To retain the towpath, steel
plates are inserted between the rear piles and the bank, bolted to the piles,
and the narrow gap backfilled.
Economical as ever, we scrounge spare steel where we can. The rusty old backing plates for Lodgemore
East were wizzed off with a large wire cup brush (non-trivial work) and given a
couple of coats of bitumen before riding the trailer to Lodgemore. It’s a fair haul from the bridge to this
particular stage, the upstream location chosen to avoid scour from the entering
Painswick Stream eventually undermining the landing stage. And the boaters will probably appreciate the
exercise.
Then the five wooden frames are fitted, bolted together and bolted to
the piles. The open fronts of the piles
allow us to fit the Armco barrier at exactly the right height to overlap the
surface topping.
The Wallbridge Lower landing stage is by the stone portal opposite
Homebase. Once again we dug the bank out
with the clamshell grab, the debris showing signs of the industrial past of
this area. This time the steel backing
sheets were new, easier to get to site via the road by the towpath, but no
easier to lift and drop into place behind the piles.
This design of landing stage includes a lower section for canoeists to
use to portage around locks, at the far end in this view. The steel plate lying on the deck was cut
diagonally in two, one part now supporting the bank by steps built at the near
end, and the other supporting the bank at the far end. By now you get the idea, and here is a photo
of the A Team, well most of them as it’s a devil to get them all to turn up for
team photos!
