Members of the public have been invited along on Saturday to watch new lock gates being craned into position on the Caen Hill flight of locks at Devizes.
The work is part of a £1 million winter maintenance programme being undertaken by British Waterways.
As the new gates are swung into position, an open day will take place from 10.30am to 3.30pm with tours of the site at 11am, noon, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm.
This winter British Waterways will be replacing four sets of bottom lock gates at locks 24, 25, 26 and 27 while at locks 35, 39 and 43 the bottom gates will be replaced and the walls will be rebuilt. The wall in the pound above lock 28 will also be rebuilt.
British Waterways’ waterway manager, Mark Stephens, said: “It’s a massive engineering challenge to keep this piece of working heritage up and running for people to use and enjoy today.
“The Devizes flight of locks, including the spectacular Caen Hill flight, celebrated its 200th birthday in December, so it’s fitting that we are able to carry out such a massive maintenance project to help it look forward to a further 200 years.”
New lock gates were delivered to Lock 39 yesterday and work to install them will continue on Saturday.
The open day is one of 11 planned by British Waterways this year.
They will provide a unique opportunity to take a closer look at the hidden workings of the waterways, as the water is drained away, and to see the massive task required to keep the canal shipshape.
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