Canal & River Trust has now completed the reconstruction of the lock landing below Birstall Lock, on the River Soar / Grand Union Leicester Line.
As you can see the new hard edge has been designed to match the adjacent hard edged visitor moorings. This comprises a stonework vertical face and in-situ concrete walkway.
Heritage aficionados may have issues with the stonework perched on top of steel piling, but at least CRT has gone some way to fitting in with the existing wharf design. It could have just been just ‘ARMCO’ piling, and a new stone wall down to the river bed would have been considerably more complicated and expensive.
Boaters, and in particular single handers, however, need to be aware that there are, as yet, no mooring bollards or rings, and no ‘ARMCO’ piling top horizontal band for mooring hooks.
As it is not possible to secure a boat whilst setting the lock, until the planned installation of bollards is carried out, all lock-users will need to tie up at the visitor moorings instead.
IWA Leicestershire Branch will be contacting CRT about bollards or rings in the future.
