Corinth Canal Closed

I called the canal operating company today and I was told "the canal will open after one month, maybe 20 days from now, call us in 10 days and maybe we can give more information". Lots of maybe's. I'd imagine clearing the fallen rocks and debris shouldn't take a huge amount of time and the bigger issue may be the risk of a similar event happening again while ships/boats are in the canal. I wonder how fastidious the H&S bods are in Greece. If anyone has any better information or updates I'd be grateful.
 
This video provides a drone perspective and shows the collapse is pretty major and involves a substantial amount of material:


Like most of Greek infrastructure it bears witness to little investment. A Canal in such soft limestone/sandstone has no hard engineering at wash level and there is massive undermining throughout the length of the canal. I have a planned transit 2nd week of May - mmmmmm
 
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Good to see they're beavering away at it. The weather forecast for the next 10 days is mainly dry with temperatures getting into the 20's. As I said earlier I don't think clearing what fell already is going to be the problem and I would expect that it would be done in about 2 weeks if there are no further falls. Will they declare it "safe" then is the big issue. I'm planning to come W to E on 06 April :black_eyed:
 
Irish Rover said:
Good to see they're beavering away at it. The weather forecast for the next 10 days is mainly dry with temperatures getting into the 20's. As I said earlier I don't think clearing what fell already is going to be the problem and I would expect that it would be done in about 2 weeks if there are no further falls. Will they declare it "safe" then is the big issue. I'm planning to come W to E on 06 April :black_eyed:
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I would start planning to go the long way round. The damage seems significant and infrastructure things take a long time in Greece. You may be surprised and find the canal is open but I really wouldn't bank on it.
 
duncan99210 said:
I would start planning to go the long way round. The damage seems significant and infrastructure things take a long time in Greece. You may be surprised and find the canal is open but I really wouldn't bank on it.
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Planning started. Still the company operating the canal are, as far as I know, a private company so they'll be doing everything possible to get it open asap. It would be different if they were a state company.
 
NormanB said:
This video provides a drone perspective and shows the collapse is pretty major and involves a substantial amount of material:


Like most of Greek infrastructure it bears witness to little investment. A Canal in such soft limestone/sandstone has no hard engineering at wash level and there is massive undermining throughout the length of the canal. I have a planned transit 2nd week of May - mmmmmm
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They wanted to have a much wider canal but couldn't afford it at the time? :)
 
The claimed depth of the canal is 8m, so I think they will need more than just an excavator to get some of those big bits out that are sticking above the water.

It really is an interesting experience going through there on a yacht and there are a couple of nice place to stop in the Gulf of Corinth
 
Just pondering this a bit. I reckon that there's the best part of 18,000 tonnes of rock in the canal. The spoil barge alongside looks like it'll take say three hundred tonnes. lets say the barge does three trips a day: that'll mean say 1000 tonnes a day. That'd take 18 working days to shift the fall, five working days a week so say four weeks to clear the fall.
Shall we open a pool to see how long it takes? Virtual pint to the winner?
 
duncan99210 said:
Just pondering this a bit. I reckon that there's the best part of 18,000 tonnes of rock in the canal. The spoil barge alongside looks like it'll take say three hundred tonnes. lets say the barge does three trips a day: that'll mean say 1000 tonnes a day. That'd take 18 working days to shift the fall, five working days a week so say four weeks to clear the fall.
Shall we open a pool to see how long it takes? Virtual pint to the winner?
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I’m expecting Paddy’s Day 17 March to be a great day with Ireland beating the Auld Enemy to clinch the grand slam and Galatasaray to beat Fenerbahçe so I’m going for the hat trick with the Canal to open as well.
 
Some of those rocks are way to big to shift, aren’t they? Do they use dynamite? Or is that likely to bring down more? And why not have a barge at each side of the fall?
One more dopey question; in the first vid there is obviously a flow through in the canal. Is it only flow in one direction, and why does it flow at all in a (effectively) tideless sea?
 
Champagne Murphy said:
Some of those rocks are way to big to shift, aren’t they? Do they use dynamite? Or is that likely to bring down more? And why not have a barge at each side of the fall?
One more dopey question; in the first vid there is obviously a flow through in the canal. Is it only flow in one direction, and why does it flow at all in a (effectively) tideless sea?
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I’m guessing only but I imagine they only have one dredger. Current is wind generated apparently and can be up to 4 Kns either direction.
 
The flow is due to minor level differences between the western gulf of Corinth and western Saronic leads to the flow, which reverses as the minor tidal levels change.
It's likely that there's only a single grab and spoil barge operating because that's what was available locally. Couldn't see any branding on the grab or the barge and it's very clean and rust free compared the contractor barges I've seen elsewhere in Greece. May be its the canal company's own kit and there'll be more once it's had time to arrive?
 
Irish Rover said:
I’m expecting Paddy’s Day 17 March to be a great day with Ireland beating the Auld Enemy to clinch the grand slam and Galatasaray to beat Fenerbahçe so I’m going for the hat trick with the Canal to open as well.
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Oh dear. As an English supporter I know you will be waiting a long time for the first of your hat trick. Dunno about the second, and I sincerely hope the third happens well before the first!
On to battle!
 
Champagne Murphy said:
One more dopey question; in the first vid there is obviously a flow through in the canal. Is it only flow in one direction, and why does it flow at all in a (effectively) tideless sea?
Click to expand...

Anyone who has sailed through Khalkhis could tell you that although it is nominally tideless there are plenty of strong currents in the Med. When we entered from the north to wait for bridge opening alongside a wall I estimated that the flow from the south was 2-3 knots. There was a visible slope on the water downstream of the narrow bridge opening.
 
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