Tim asked: > Would it be absolute sacrilege to suggest that the tunnel should be opened > out? It is without doubt the most pointless tunnel ever built - the towpath > runs at normal level only 20 feet or so on open ground to the side of the > tunnel! Much as I dislike concrete bridges over canals a thin short slab, > with appropriate dressings, over the road section should provide adequate > clearance without having to raise the road level.
To be fair the tunnel goes through a short but sharp headland. We're not on the valley floor at this point so going around the headland would have meant building out some way to get the width for a sharp bend or cutting into the headland, probably making more work than digging through it. There used to be a pub on top of the tunnel and apparently the done thing was to get the men out to weight down the boats so they could fit through the tunnel. Now the pub has gone the boats don't fit ;) To answer your original question, the tunnel is not a listed structure and opening it out does seem like the obvious solution to me. Indeed the idea was discussed when we had a site walk a few weeks ago and is one of the options we would ask the consultants to look at if/when we do commission a formal study. Steve
