Building the missing link

Transform

The east and west coasts of Scotland have been re-connected through the Millennium Link and its engineering marvel, the Falkirk Wheel

The Millennium Link project re-connected Scotland’s historic Forth and Clyde and Union Canals by building the world’s only rotating boat lift, the engineering landmark that is the Falkirk Wheel. It was a 21st century solution to the problem of linking two canals separated by a 24-metre drop between them.

British Waterways Scotland (BWS) had been interested in trying to connect the canals in the early 1990s and it was a 20-strong multi-disciplinary team of architects and engineers led by Edinburgh College of Art-educated Tony Kettle from architects RMJM, that came up with the final design in summer 1999.

The solution was to link an aqueduct that finished in mid-air to the basin 35 metres below it by a rotating boat lift with its two fixed water-filled gondolas in the shape of a double-headed Celtic axe. The design enables a boat in the upper gondola to be lowered into the basin below while an exactly equal weight of water is raised in the lower gondola at the same time.

Once the design was finished and proved to work, Butterley Engineering built the structure in its Derbyshire steelworks, assembling it like a vast Meccano construction on the factory floor before dismantling it so it could be transported in 35 lorryloads up to Falkirk. There it was bolted back together on the ground and lifted into place in five sections by a 1,000 tonne Demag crane.

“A most interesting and daring vision of the far future”

When the day of the opening arrived in spring 2001 over 50,000 people thronged the canal banks to celebrate.

“It was stunning – you couldn’t see the grass for all the people who had come along,” says British Waterways technical director Jim Stirling. “Everywhere you went there were droves and droves of people and they applauded us when we sailed through.”

did you know?

• The difference in the levels between the Forth and Clyde and the Union canal is 24 metres (79 ft) – equivalent to the height of an eight-storey building
• The project has delivered over £178 million of investment, more than 3,000 jobs and over 1,000 new homes
• The Falkirk Wheel attracted its millionth visitor during 2010