2,000 tonnes quarried aggregates to secure canal breach

Emergency canal bank repairs with 6C quarried stone

On a night in October 2021 after some unusually heavy rainfall, the Kennet and Avon Canal experienced a serious breach. With the potential flood risk to nearby residential areas at serious levels, the Canal & River Trust engineers needed to move fast.  The breach – a bank failure in the canal at Burghfield – caused the connected Holy Brook section of the canal between two locks to dry up, meaning that 100 tonnes of material needed to be moved and lifted every day to help the reinstate the water flow to its previous levels.

20 loads a day to canalside

To reinforce and repair the breach, Malvern-based Simson Aggregate Solutions Limited sourced from and collaborated with specialist aggregate suppliers MCM, who reacted to the canal bank emergency immediately. Setting their logistics team into action swiftly, MCM ramped up deliveries totalling 2,000 tonnes of 6C quarried stone delivered over 3 weeks. At a rate of 20 loads a day, deliveries were received, lifted and positioned to reinstate the water flow quickly and safely, allowing the locks to refill and the waterway to reopen.

Supply chain and delivery reliability

Simsons worked closely with MCM’s Scott Bailey, keeping in touch and arranging regular deliveries and availability so that the flow of product could best assist the engineers as they rebuilt the canal banks and readjusted its flow.

Short Notice

The short notice and irregular deliveries and volumes meant that Scott and the MCM team had to keep close reins on the operation and their communications with Sam and his team on site.

“Time was of the essence here.” highlighted Sam Baird, Simson’s Managing Director, who has worked with MCM on several projects previously.

“MCM’s reliable service and wide-reaching supply network meant that Scott and his team could satisfy our emergency delivery schedule as well as keeping the availability of aggregates flowing, so the waterway could too.”