Bridgewater Canal Breach Update – April 2025
Since the breach at Little Bollington in early January, the Bridgewater Canal team has worked hard to protect the canal and surrounding infrastructure. With emergency measures now in place – including stoplogs, an earth dam and temporary Portadams.
We’re pleased to share that procurement work is now underway for a more robust medium-term solution, involving new timber stoplogs and a permanent earth dam on either side of the breach. This will allow us to safely remove the temporary Portadams and maintain canal integrity while long-term repairs progress. This will further reduce the unnavigable section to half a mile.
Although it’s still early days, we’re currently aiming to have the canal fully reopened to navigation – including the Cheshire Ring – by December 2026. Initial consultations on repair design have begun, and we hope to appoint an engineering consultancy in the coming months.
To date, around £300,000 has been invested in stabilising and protecting the canal following the breach. We remain committed to keeping the community, our boating customers and all interested parties updated as plans develop.
We’re also in early discussions with the local Inland Waterways Association (IWA) branch about supporting a potential event in Lymm this August, where we’d look to showcase plans, graphics and a repair timeline.
For questions or more information, please visit the Bridgewater Canal website or email bridgewatercanal@peel.co.uk.
Thank you again to everyone for your ongoing patience and support,
Peter Parkinson
Managing Director – Bridgewater Canal
