The Manchester Ship Canal

My working day started in Warrington - a meeting to talk about Manchester Ship Canal issues.

I got to the area early, and took the opportunity to take some photos from two of the bridges which cross the Canal. This shot is looking east. I am standing on a high level bridge, the next bridge up is a very busy swing bridge carrying  the A50. Beyond that is a high level railway bridge - now disused. Formerly carrying rail  traffic from Warrington to Stockport, most of the route is now the trans-pennine trail (though not over the bridge). Beyond that are Latchford Locks. And beyond that, out of sight on this shot, Thelwall viaduct carrying the M6 over the Ship Canal.

As I stood on the first bridge to take a photo (the A50 bridge in shot), a kingfisher flew toward me and shot underneath. A first for the start of a working week, totally uplifting. Here the chiffchaffs are in full song, the gorse is in flower, and looking at the sandstone cliffs bordering the Canal I can only marvel at the human effort required to dig this all out by hand.

Fortunately I managed to avoid the earlier traffic chaos. Two ships, one bound for Irlam and one bound for Weaste in Salford, necessitated operating the swing bridges during the morning peak. A ship on the canal travels two foot above the bottom of the canal as it moves, and passes two foot under the fixed high level bridges. The Ship Canal Company works within fine tolerances to ensure safe navigation, including no ships grounding, and no ships hitting bridges.

The extra shows the bridge where I am standing to take this shot.