Birmingham's Canals
Birmingham is said to have more canals than Venice.
They have tremendous potential which could be developed into
something unique, yet through neglect many canals are polluted
eyesores used by drunks.
With imagination & a little effort we could see walkers, joggers and cyclists sharing and enjoying our industrial revolution heritage.
The canal towpaths could easily become 'arterial routes' for bikes and walkers.
Edgbaston Tunnel
The surface in the tunnel has deteriorated again!
The maintenance seems to be a crappy 'fill the holes and smooth the dirt repair' each year.
In contrast, many of the shorter tunnels have brick paving and those near Kings Norton have recently had their brick paving repaired.
The narrowness of the towpath in the tunnel probably makes grading, rolling & compacting difficult. Widening the Edgbaston Tunnel would be expensive & narrow the waterway. The cost of the ineffective yearly 'repairs' would over 5 years would probably pay for marble paving?
Providing a stable long wearing surface in the Edgbaston tunnel should be a priority & not impossible.
On the subject of towpath tunnels & bridges in general:
The original? cobbed surfaces are awful to ride over, but I suppose they should be preserved as an indication of how the canals were.
The bricked version with a central line of raised bricks are
fine except when the width of the plain brickwork on each side is
too narrow for easy cycling. It should be possible to offset the
raised zone to provide one reasonable cycle route?
One problem is that the dirt tends to wear away where the bricks
start, so there's a sharp brick ridge to give you a pinch puncture
):
Plain concrete is usually fine if boring.
Concrete with transverse slots is awful. Given that narrow boats aren't pulled by men on foot why do this? Perhaps it's a 'little' like the transverse ridges in the original cobbled surface ie arty but as it looks naff, it's farty.
Gravel surfaces are generally fine for bikes
