Cracked bollards on Birmingham narrow locks

 

I spent Saturday afternoon descending the Farmers Bridge lock flight in Birmingham, and then the Ashted and Garrison Flights, to moor overnight at Star City.

You know all those big, square, wooden lockside bollards on the narrow locks in the Midlands?   Well, I can't help but notice that almost all of them are cracked, only a few months after being installed.

Does this matter?

On Saturday afternoon I had the assistance of my brother-in-law David, who steered the whole time, giving me a treasured opportunity to lockwheel, something I adore but don't get chance often enough to do.  And this allowed me to inspect them more closely.

[David is the only person I know who is a World's Leading Expert on a subject; in his case, garden and landscape history. 

He was the garden historian who restored William & Mary's Privy Garden at Hampton Court to its original 300 year old design in the 1990s, a time when BW Chairman Chief Executive Robin Evans was then the manager of the place.

David is also a landowner, running hundreds of acres of Staffordshire farmland and managing a hundred-aker wood of his own. 

I'm not sure if that qualifies him to comment on these bollards, but I certainly listen to him on matters silviculture.] 

I pointed out the reasoning behind these new bollards, and the drawbacks too (as explained in What a lot of bollards on the narrow canal locks).  

(Paul Balmer has a photo of one of these, freshly installed last year)

I pointed out how these new wooden posts are cracked within months of being installed.  Why was this?  Was the wood badly seasoned? 

He can't be sure, but wonders if it's because they are each cut (singly and centrally) from single young tree trunks.  Young wood like this cracks radially from the centre, he says (see main picture, above), and he thinks it might have been better if the bollards had been smaller, and cut four at a time from larger, older, more seasoned wood. 

They also, he reckoned, needed 'caps' – something on top of each bollard to stop the rain from leeching in – at least for the first year or two. 

Many boaters are asking whether these bollards were needed in the first place, let alone whether they were designed and installed correctly.  David's comments made me wonder if there are serious errors of execution as well.

I can't help but feel that a target was set – probably a 'health & safety' one – for the entire BW estate to be fitted with these things in haste. 

I wonder if the completion of the job – perhaps on time, maybe under budget - helped to earn someone in the corporate hierarchy a bonus?  (A cheap shot, I know.)

See also: Ribble Piddler will return as £30k iron man (and ask about parallels.)

Update:  Richard Fairhurst mentions that there's an interview with BW director Vince Moran that touches on the bollards, in a recent edition of Waterways World.  "See what you're missing by not faithfully reading?", he adds with a gentle smile.   It's not online, so I can't link to it here, sorry.

Comments

[Max Sinclair]

It looks as if these bollards have been cut from unseasoned young oaks known as Blackpoles because tanneries used them to boil out Tannin, a big trade on the Droitwich Barge Canal
Fully grown oak pressure treated with preservative would have lasted for 50 years. The bit stuck in the ground should be fired to make a hard coat.
Capping the bollard would help, but better still chainsaw the whole lot off the narrow locks!

[Bruce Napier]

You beat us to it! Sheila took some pix of the cracks in bollards the other week but I hadn't got round to using them.

One hard winter and the ice will blow them apart, we reckon.

The imposed tight deadline for the H&S standards undoubtedly lead to some false economies.

Never mind, when that nice MR C is in No 10, he's going to name and shame quango execs who take home mega bonuses, isn't he?

Cheers

Bruce

PS We're just back on our nicely blacked boat too.