It might be too much to hope that they sort out the drainage of otherwise relatively smooth parts of the towpath... There was a lot of standing water earlier and it will only be worse by now, mostly along the section between Wester Hailes and the bypass.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Canal latest
(71 posts)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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Who is responsible for maintenance of the towpath, and the access routes to and from? Is it the council, or Scottish Canals, or a combination of the two?
Posted 1 year ago # -
That's a good question. I'm pretty sure that Scottish Canals are responsible for the towapth, but I don't know about the linking paths; I would assume that is more likely to be the council and they are taking the opportunity to spend money on work which is relatively easy to get done without endless consultations etc?
Posted 1 year ago # -
I asked the council officer who deals with their other chicane removals/minor improvements, and they didn't know who was responsible. So it's not the council, but it might largely be Sustrans rather than Scottish Canals.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ah, I should have realised it might be Sustrans. On the subject of chicane removals, a couple of bits of chicane and a bollard or two have also gone from the towpath and access paths between Wester Hailes and Heriot-Watt. It would be great if they could remove the speed bumps where the chicanes used to be though. I was starting to think about switching back to my hybridised MTB as the path deteriorated, but I'm now hoping that the works will eventually make sticking with my proper hybrid make sense again.
Posted 1 year ago # -
It's Scottish Canals carrying out the work, paid for by the taxpayer via Sustrans:
https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/news/union-canal-central-canals-access-improvements-edinburgh/
Posted 1 year ago # -
Was going to Stirling Uni today
Decided to go from Edinburgh Park
Took the wee comedy Brompton as had lorra hassle at Edinburgh park previously trying to get big bike on train.
Used two of the new bits of tar, a small side spur on the path down from Hermiston where all the tree routes are still causing bother, so almost pointless but the great paving of the desire line to come off towpath at New Mid Cultins.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Resurfacing of the section of towpath at Wester Hailes that had been marked and cut previously was ongoing this morning. It was possible to pass the work area via the grass. The same won't be possible at other sections that also need to be resurfaced, but there is also no sign of any other areas being marked up as yet.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I cycled on the newly surfaced part of the towpath which is nice and smooth for now, but it is clearly of a different composition to the path around it so it will be interesting to see how long it lasts. There is no sign that any further sections of the towpath are set to be resurfaced, although there is still work to be done to one of the access paths at Wester Hailes. Some bollards have gone in at some of the newly surfaced access paths beyond the Bridge 8 Hub with what appears to be reasonably wide spacing.
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
The City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Canals are working in partnership to update the Edinburgh Union Canal Strategy. Originally produced in 2011, we would like your views to help inform the updated strategy and guide the future development and vision for the place we wish the Union Canal to be.
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
Thanks, I have responded. I haven't seen any signs of further work on the canal for a few weeks now so mentioned that more of the towpath desperately needs fixing, and preferably with a more convincing like-for-like path replacement than the section that they did fix with a different, raised surface at Wester Hailes.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Greenroofer this morning
Elephant bike
Orange US prison fatigues.?
Posted 1 year ago # -
@gembo. Long time no see. You score 1.5 out of 3...
@Greenroofer this morning. Correct. 1 mark.
Elephant bike. Close but no cigar Tern HSD with a case on the front rack. 0 marks
Orange US prison fatigues.? Good effort. Screwfix waterproof workie trousers (cheap and waterproof, good for today's drizzle). 1/2 mark.
Your clothing was more restrained than mine. I was also wearing wellies, which are ideal commuting footwear in the wet, particularly on an e-bike. I arrived at working looking ridiculous, but dry.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@greenroofer, fair scoring.
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
“The opening of this 11km stretch represents another section completed on the Grand Canal Greenway. The Grand Canal Greenway represents a significant priority for my department with approximately €10 million invested in it since 2020.”
“Work is continuing to ensure a continuous, almost entirely fully segregated route along the 130km canal stretching from Dublin to the River Shannon, which should be completed in 2025. Here in Sallins and along the entire stretch which runs through Kildare, this means that locals and visitors alike will be able to enjoy the tranquility, history and biodiversity of the canal as a great walking and cycling amenity.”
“
https://kildare-nationalist.ie/2024/01/10/sallins-and-kildare-boost-grand-canal-greenway-opens/
Posted 10 months ago # -
Perhaps folk can share images of the canal path & profiles
As I spent 10 years building pavements for Sustrans, I have a serious level of nerdish interest in how pavements are constructed, especially the cross-profiles and drainage
Too often the pavement surfaces sit lower than the verges and trap water which should be draining into the sides (cesses)
Combine this with motor vehicles having sipes cut into the tyre treads running on drybound macadam surfaces, with standing water & we get the typical potholed pavements everywhere
The detailing of bridge holes is also a serious hazard when traffic coming from both directions has one user not seeing the other oncoming user. This can be mitigated if people actually designed the path properly
Posted 10 months ago # -
.”Too often the pavement surfaces sit lower than the verges and trap water which should be draining into the sides (cesses)
…
This can be mitigated if people actually designed the path properly”
Not just towpaths!
Posted 10 months ago # -
Oh my name is Jock Stewart
I’m a canny gunman
Way down in the County Kildare.Or
Oh my name is Jock Stewart
I’m a canny young man
Down by the banks of the TayDiscuss?
The rhyme is I’m a man you don’t meet everyday.
In further discrepancies Cait O’Riordan sings
Oh I took out my dog and him I did shoot.
Cait says - he was a bad dog when she duets with a puddles Pity party recently.
Back to Scottish version
Oh I took out my dog, with him I did shoot,
I think the Scottish lyrics make more sense than the Pogues version
Though I was there when they sang it at the Barrowlands and changed Jock Stewart to Jock Stein.
The Welsh goalie Neville Southall has a great story about Jock Stein.
It was warm up during a Scotland Wales match and Nev had kicked all the balls into the Scottish section of the crowd. None of the balls had been returned. big Jock was informed and marched over to the fans and had a word. All balls duly returned, I believe he was a man you don’t meet every day (though gambled all his money away)
Posted 10 months ago # -
Some Heriot-Watt students a doing a short survey regarding the role that the canal takes in promoting active travel and potential areas for its improvement if anyone fancies filling it in (signing up for a 'walking interview' along the towpath is an option at the end, intriguingly): https://forms.office.com/e/zpQsPjrHAX
Posted 9 months ago # -
Ooooh, one question asks would it be nicer if cyclists slowed down? Next you will not say hello to me under a bridge on a dark night after work. Oh wait you did that already.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I was so surprised that you had managed to recognise me in the dark (although not for the first time now that I think about it) that I failed to respond appropriately.
Posted 9 months ago # -
You are forgiven.
Posted 9 months ago # -
A very kind cyclist waited a fair time for me to exit aqueduct 8am this morning at the dont/do suicide graffiti. Stone me if it weren’t @greenroofer of this parish. Cor blimey, love a duck.
Posted 9 months ago # -
A rare pleasure to see @gembo on the commute today. I didn't wait that long, as there was a runner holding you up. The towpath seemed quiet, perhaps because of the rain. I arrived at work having discovered that my 'waterproof' jacket was not, in fact, waterproof.
However the orange waterproof trousers (from Screwfix), and the wellies (also from Screwfix) did their thing and I was dry from the waist down.
Posted 9 months ago # -
The broken parts of the towpath at Kingsknowe have been sprayed white - hopefully this means that the path will be fixed in due course as they did to the section at Wester Hailes last year - even if the quality of the new surface didn't look great, it is holding up for now and is a lot better than before. No sign of any of the other broken parts being highlighted yet, although someone did enterprisingly cut grooves into some of the worst bumps recently, which means the potential for a fairly smooth ride through some of them if you manage to line your wheels up.
Posted 3 months ago # -
I should also have mentioned a hole that was rapidly developing on the towpath just west of the pedestrian bridge to Colinton Dell. It had changed from being a quite minor undulation to a dangerously deep pothole over the course of a few weeks earlier in the summer, but has now been highlighted with yellow paint and filled in with loose rocks. Hopefully a full repair coming.
Posted 3 months ago # -
It's all go just now. This morning there are posts for what I assume with by forthcoming fencing arranged by the hedge on the side of the towpath near Wester Hailes Education Centre, at which there is some major work going on just now. Due to the angle of the ground by the hedge and the shape of the posts, some of them are protruding out over the towpath a little at around head height, which seems somewhat dangerous. I assume that once the fencing has been attached it will be rather less dangerous in terms of protruding metal, but will restrict the width of the towpath somewhat for the duration of the works...
Posted 3 months ago # -
It's a bit surprising that Scottish Canals would sign off on fencing that actually narrows the towpath.
Posted 3 months ago # -
Is new Wester Hailes High School. Scottish Canals will close their paths so this is maybe ok
Posted 3 months ago # -
Aha. Well it turns out that the fencing did not narrow the canal towpath because the hedge along the entire stretch that has now been fenced off has been cleared, which was a bit of a surprise. I hope that this was an acceptable time of year to be doing that in terms of the wildlife that might have been living within it.
Posted 3 months ago #
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