THE Canal & River Trust in Wales (Glandŵr Cymru) has started the second phase of dredging on the 200-year-old Montgomery Canal.
Restoration of the canal has included decades of work by volunteers and partners. Now, more than four miles of the canal between Llanymynech and Maerdy is being restored thanks to Glandŵr Cymru’s successful Levelling Up Fund bid in partnership with Powys County Council, supported by the Montgomery Canal Partnership.
This phase of the canal’s restoration aims to restore the channel so that boats will be able to use the waterway for the first time since the 1930s.
It will also help make the canal easier to use for unpowered activities such as canoeing and paddleboarding. The restoration is also creating a broad and sustainable habitat to support a range of wildlife and the protected floating water plantain found on the canal.
Kathryn Woodroffe, project manager for the Montgomery Canal restoration, said: “This phase of dredging is another exciting step forward in the work to restore the Montgomery Canal. We are aiming to achieve a standard depth for boats to use the canal and ensure vegetation and tree cover that will enhance and protect the diversity of the canal ecosystem.”
This latest phase of dredging is being split into two parts. The first, which will be completed in the new year, will see nearly a mile dredged from Bridge 99 to Vyrnwy Aqueduct. The second part, just over half a mile from Bridge 101 to Bridge 102, will see the bank stabilised using coir roll and timber stakes, which will give the canal a soft bank ideal for wildlife such as water voles, wildfowl and invertebrates.
During the dredging, a footpath diversion will be in place where the footpath comes off the canal towpath across the farmland at Pont-y-Person.
