River Thames planned winter lock closures updated 14 October 2016

I suggested back in the spring that it might be the case when the project was being planned. B1 has made comment to waterways management as well. I believe a certain Windsor based steamer company met with the new waterways manager this week to discuss the closure. More later if I discover anything.
 
Windsor Lock cut closure is a complete pain in the fundament.

For the first time in many years the River is completely open over the Christmas period and we intended (weather permitting) to go downstream to Hampton Court and visit family.

Then 'at the last minute' Thames Water come along with their extended closure. No (real) details.
Bother!!
As the River is not much used at that time - I didn't make a fuss.
Prompted by the above (thank you Cap'n) I wonder whether there are others on here - 'specially those who make few comments - who would genuinely be inconvenienced by the closure?

I await with bated breath.....
 
I know that the DBA chairman has challenged the EA on the late announcement and length of time this work will take. Bellow is response to DBA

Thanks for your email.

I have spoken with the Project Manager at Thames Water regarding the works that they are proposing. I agree, 3 and a bit months is excessive, so I was keen to understand the scope and extent of the works and to see from an engineering perspective, if there were other options.

The works consist of grit-blasting the bridge and repainting, for which the bridge needs to be fully encapsulated – this is to reduce the nuisance associated with the air-bourne debris and potential river pollution. During this time, the river will need to be fully closed through the lock-cut for the scaffolding support.

Following on from this, the “channels” in the bridge are to be renovated / repaired. They don’t know the extent of this until they expose them, but I discussed the need for the closure during this work. The Project Manager felt that they could look at local encapsulation for this work (as needed) and may be able to remove the closure earlier than the middle of February as currently stated.

My Technical Officer, Andy Croxford, is meeting with the project team on site on Monday where they will have a review of what is required and what changes could be made to the closure.

I hope the above is useful – I believe that there is some wriggle room in the Programme to bring the closure down somewhat. I will let you know when I have had formal notification.

Best Regards


Barry Russell MBE
Waterways Manager │Thames Area
 
EA have now responded further|

I just wanted to provide you with a further update regarding your recent correspondence and inform you that we are currently in talks with Thames Water in order to try and reduce the closure time. At present we are hoping the work will be complete by Christmas and navigation will be open but we have had to factor in possible delays to the programme. We will re issue the programme shortly to reflect this and the new closure dates will be 1st November – 23rd January. If or when this changes we will notify river users through subsequent issues of the programme and via our river conditions website.

Unfortunately there will be no ‘window’ as the entire bridge will have to be encapsulated. A removal and reinstatement of this would be costly and delay the works further.

Kind Regards
Cherie
 
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