Our response to the County Council’s consultation for the replacement of the A379 bridges over the canal

After working with the bridges team at Devon County Council for five or more years we were hugely dissapointed that they are not proposing to take forward what we thought was an agreed proposal to raise the level of the bridges and highway to allow more boats to pass under the bridges rather than opening the bridegs and stopping the traffic.

Almost impossible to navigate the canal here

This picture shows how low the air draught under the existing swing bridge over the canal is, demonstrating how impossible it is for any craft other than a canoe to pass under. The new bascule bridges will improve the air draught, but it will still be impossible for paddle boarders or small yatchs to pass under safely unless the air draught is increase to at least 2.7m