Rodgers Leask supports Cotswold canal restoration

LEADING engineering consultancy Rodgers Leask has brought its multi-disciplinary offering to the Cotswold Canals Connected project, playing an important part in helping restore the ‘missing mile’ of the Stroudwater Navigation.

This ambitious award-winning restoration is the largest, and most complex National Heritage Lottery Funded project in the South-West. Driven by Cotswold Canals Connected, a partnership led by Stroud District Council and Cotswold Canals Trust, it aims to re-establish a section of canal that was filled in during the creation of the M5 motorway in the 1960s

Led from their Bristol office, Rodgers Leask’s civil, structural and geo-environmental engineering teams bring a multi-disciplinary approach to the project, in which they are working closely with the charity’s project delivery team to meet the challenging technical, budgetary and delivery demands of the scheme.

The team is designing a replacement aqueduct that will allow the canal to cross over Oldbury Brook once again. The work involves developing an initial concept for the aqueduct and adjoining John Robinson Lock and detailing key components such as a triple pipe culvert arrangement and protective cover slab.

Retaining walls have been designed using modular bag units to fulfil the design brief for a sturdy but simple solution that will allow the charity volunteers to actively participate in construction. By simplifying material choices, the engineering consultancy has been able to keep construction costs low while ensuring the project meets the high standards that it sets itself and end users of the canal would expect.

Dave Bathurst, regional director for Rodgers Leask in Bristol, said: “The solutions being developed are a blend of technicality and practicality, which wouldn’t be possible without determined coordination and collaboration with Cotswold Canal Connected and enthusiasm for design excellence within our team. At the heart of this project is a sense of social value that will be returned to an impressive but long forgotten connection to our industrial past. Once restored the canal will take on a new, but no less important purpose, as an amenity for local people. Trading its initial use for transporting coal and other important goods, for one that will facilitate leisure and tourism.

“For Rodgers Leask, this project represents another successful example of our growing portfolio of canals and waterways projects that also includes recent involvement in the restoration of Chesterfield Canal.”

The `Missing Mile’ is a key part of the second phase of the Cotswold Canals Connected project. It promises numerous benefits for the region including the creation of a new community-led wildlife corridor with conservation and biodiversity projects.

In addition to these environmental advantages, the restored canal is expected to become a vibrant tourist destination, celebrating the area’s rich industrial heritage and boosting the local economy.

Chris Mitford-Slade, project manager at Cotswold Canals Connected, said: “The restoration of this section of the canal is an exciting step forward for both the local community and the environment. It will create a space that blends heritage and habitat for the benefit of all.”

The Cotswold Canals Connected project is enabled by the work of the charity Cotswold Canals Trust. For further information, membership enquiries and volunteering opportunities, visit https://cotswoldcanals.org/

For more information on Rodgers Leask, visit https://rodgersleask.com/