Birmingham canal between Gas Street Basin and Salvage Turn reopens after engineers completed repairs.

Engineers have completed repairs to the Worcester & Birmingham Canal in central Birmingham, enabling the canal to reopen after three weeks’ closure

The canal between Gas Street Basin and Salvage Turn crosses three aqueducts – perhaps better described as tunnels. One crosses Holliday Street, a second crosses the Birmingham to Bristol railway, and another crosses an old railway line to a former goods yard. The third of these showed signs of serious leakage in February, resulting in a length of canal being closed and drained for investigations.

These revealed a large hole in the canal bed, which engineers attempted to seal. The first attempt wasn’t entirely successful, with some water still leaking through, but further work successfully sealed the leaks enabling the canal to open on 12 March.

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