Falkirk Flight Lock Gate Replacement & Refurbishment Programme 2024-2026
Significant improvement works along the Forth & Clyde Canal Falkirk Flight are set to get underway.
The multi-year programme of works, between locks 3 and 16, will see the canal undergo a major lock-gate refurbishment and replacement programme.
Our engineers have completed a comprehensive assessment of the area and are now looking to commence works which have been prioritised and planned to ensure the canal can continue to operate safely for the next 20 plus years.
The project, funded from Scottish Canals’ Capital Investment Programme, will see us replace gates at locks 7,9,11, 14 and 16, and undertake further improvements to lock gates including cill replacement, quoin repair and over-planking.
To accommodate these works we require to suspend navigation from November 2024 with the aim of re-opening by March 2026.
The Carron Sea Lock (lock 2) will remain operational during the major works planned.
As normal, use of the sea lock will be restricted to tide times and river current. There may also be some additional unplanned restrictions relating to water supply. All requests for boat movements must be booked in advance with our teams. Please call 07810 794 467 or email lowland.canals@scottishcanals.co.uk to make arrangements.
As with any construction works, dates are subject to change and delays however we will seek to reduce the time navigation is suspended if any opportunity allows.
These works will form part of the Lowland Lock Gate Refurbishment and Replacement Programme Scottish Canals | Lock gate replacement works 2023/24 which has to date seen the gates at locks 5, 6 and 8 replaced at a cost of £2.2m. In addition, all other lock gates on the Forth & Clyde Canal have had remedial repairs to improve water retention via over sheeting or re-planking to support ongoing navigation.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. For specific customer boat movement enquiries please contact our teams direct.
Updates on any disruption as a result on these works will be available on our ongoing disruptions page.
Significant improvement works along the Forth & Clyde Canal Falkirk Flight are set to get underway.
The multi-year programme of works, between locks 3 and 16, will see the canal undergo a major lock-gate refurbishment and replacement programme.
Our engineers have completed a comprehensive assessment of the area and are now looking to commence works which have been prioritised and planned to ensure the canal can continue to operate safely for the next 20 plus years.
The project, funded from Scottish Canals’ Capital Investment Programme, will see us replace gates at locks 7,9,11, 14 and 16, and undertake further improvements to lock gates including cill replacement, quoin repair and over-planking.
To accommodate these works we require to suspend navigation from November 2024 with the aim of re-opening by March 2026.
The Carron Sea Lock (lock 2) will remain operational during the major works planned.
As normal, use of the sea lock will be restricted to tide times and river current. There may also be some additional unplanned restrictions relating to water supply. All requests for boat movements must be booked in advance with our teams. Please call 07810 794 467 or email lowland.canals@scottishcanals.co.uk to make arrangements.
As with any construction works, dates are subject to change and delays however we will seek to reduce the time navigation is suspended if any opportunity allows.
These works will form part of the Lowland Lock Gate Refurbishment and Replacement Programme Scottish Canals | Lock gate replacement works 2023/24 which has to date seen the gates at locks 5, 6 and 8 replaced at a cost of £2.2m. In addition, all other lock gates on the Forth & Clyde Canal have had remedial repairs to improve water retention via over sheeting or re-planking to support ongoing navigation.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. For specific customer boat movement enquiries please contact our teams direct.
Updates on any disruption as a result on these works will be available on our ongoing disruptions page.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm Alistair Dalton, the Scotsman's Transport Correspondent. I'm in Falkirk today on the oldest
00:05remaining section of the Scottish Canal network. Scottish Canals, which own the waterways, is about
00:12to start major work which will close this part of the canal between the Kelpies and the Falkirk wheel
00:20until early 2026. The problem facing Scottish Canals is that when the Forth and Clyde and Union
00:28canals were reopened 25 years ago after decades of dereliction, many new lock gates were put in
00:36which are now reaching the end of their life. They all need to be replaced or to be repaired
00:43and Scottish Canals want to reduce the impact of the disruption by doing it in one phase over 18
00:50months. So I'm Richard Miller and I'm Chief Operating Officer at Scottish Canals. So today
00:57we're on what we would call the Falkirk Flight. We are between the Kelpies and the Falkirk wheel.
01:02We're doing some major works between Lock 3 and Lock 16 here at the Falkirk Flight. These works
01:08we're looking at replacing and refurbishing a whole lot of the lock gates that were put in
01:1425 years ago as part of the Millennium Link project. The Millennium Link was a really important
01:20project, year 2000-2002, and what the Millennium Link was to do was to reopen the lowland canals
01:29of Scotland. The canals were started in 1768 and they were completed with the Union Canal in 1822.
01:38However, as the railways came along they fell into decline in the 20th century and by the 1960s
01:46motorways were the thing of the day. So the canals were closed at that point in lowlands and
01:51that's the Forth and Clyde and the Union Canal and the Millennium Link project was about reopening
01:56these, removing 36 major obstructions including things like the whole of Westerhales had been
02:03built on the canal. So we had to dig right through Westerhales, we had to lift motorways, we had to
02:08remove utility infrastructure and we had to build new locks at that time as well. A thousand people
02:14were working on that project, 83.5 million pound invested, the Falkirk Wheel built and the
02:20canal was brought back to life. The challenge that we now face is that massive investment 25 years ago
02:27is now coming back and requiring certain parts of it are needing investment and that's what we're
02:33doing at the moment. We saw that last year where we did a massive upgrade at the Falkirk Wheel,
02:382.7 million on improving the control systems at the Falkirk Wheel and now we're working on the
02:44lock gates. We've got a lock gate strategy across Scotland taking care of the Caledonian, the Crinnan
02:50and the lowland canals and this winter and into next year we are going to be doing significant
02:57works here on the Falkirk flight. So the challenge is around about how do we invest our
03:01money and we're challenged with making the best investments for government and what we want
03:07to do here is make it as efficient as possible. So there are a number of gates here that need to be
03:14improved and repaired so what we've done is taken quite a hard decision because this is between
03:19the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies, have an extended closure here. Normally we would do it
03:25over the winter time, it's just an extension of that into next summer. We will then be working
03:30to manage the water to keep areas of the canal in water and available but not available to boats
03:37over that period and we'll work our way down. We will be refurbishing the gates and in some cases
03:43we'll be replacing the gates with new infrastructure. The Forth and Clyde Canal was the first
03:49major sea-to-sea, fully man-made sea-to-sea navigation and actually it's an incredible
03:55piece of engineering but being the first it's kind of basic and at the top we put water in,
04:03it cascades all the way down these lock flights and what we want to do is be able to manage that
04:08water. So in a number of locations we'll be putting in what's known as a bypass which allows the water
04:13to flow around the lock rather than over the lock gates. What that does is bring us benefits because
04:19it will allow the gates to last longer, it's not having all of that water constantly cascading over
04:24it and it allows us much better to manage the water and utilise these canals for climate
04:31resilience. The Smart Canal is a great example of us developing and using this heritage infrastructure
04:38for the future. It allows us just to drop the canal by four inches and that allows us to take
04:44surface water from 3,000 new homes in Glasgow. These developments of bypasses throughout the
04:50system will allow us to extend that benefit to other areas and to prepare for the climate change
04:57that we are already beginning to see. So we have really talented engineers, we have a consistent
05:03programme of investment onto the canals every year but one of our challenges is an ageing workforce
05:10and a lot of our skills, they were here 25 years ago putting these gates in, they know exactly how
05:16to set a gate and how to set it upright so that it works and it holds the water perfectly.
05:22What I want to do through these works is to pass that skill on to a new generation.
05:27So we'll be working with young people, we're bringing in apprentices and we'll be working
05:32with our workforce to make sure the skills of those that were here and did all of those
05:37works in the past are passed on for future generations so that we can keep doing this
05:42for the next 250 years. So across the network we're constantly managing the condition of the
05:49canal. Canals were built 200 to 250 years ago, I don't think anyone that built them ever expected
05:55them to still be here 250 years later. So our challenge is very much making sure that the
06:01investment that we have, we invest wisely and we will need to do works on the west, there is no
06:07doubt about it. We put 30, I think it was 32 sets of gates were put in as part of the Millennium Link
06:13project, all of those are starting to reach the end of their design life. So over the next 10 years
06:20we've got a lock gate strategy that helps us to understand the condition of those gates,
06:25helps us to invest appropriately and we'll need to manage this moving forward and we will be trying
06:32to work in the winter time doing that so that we've got the summer season here for boating
06:37but there may be times again when we need an extended period to make these works as efficient
06:42as possible and to deliver the beautiful canal that you see here today for the people of Scotland.