Canal link set to open

Clean-up work has been under way on the canal

The Forth and Clyde Canal, which links the east and west coasts of Scotland, has been reconnected after almost 40 years.

More than 30 obstructions have been removed or overcome to open up the trading route that played a major part in Scotland's industrial past.

British Waterways has spent several years and £78m to restore the canal to working order under a lottery funded project known as the 'Millennium Link'.

For the first time in 40 years it is possible to travel on water from Bowling on the Clyde through Falkirk to the Forth at Grangemouth.

Engineers now plan to restore the Union Canal between Falkirk and Edinburgh.

Obstructions have been cleared

British Waterways, architects and engineers have been working for the past four years to reconnect the Union Canal to the Forth and Clyde.

The two canals, which run between Glasgow and Edinburgh, stand at different heights from each other and were previously linked by a series of 19th century stepped locks, which closed in the 1930s.

The plans include the construction of a new section of canal, two aqueducts, three locks, a tunnel, a railway bridge and a canal basin.

But the centrepiece of the project will be the 'Millennium Wheel'.

The 115ft rotating lift, which is costs £17m, has been designed to transfer vessels between the Forth, Clyde and the Union Canals at Falkirk.