The Millennium Link (1999-2002)
an information and picture resource of the restoration of the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals in Scotland, including construction of the Falkirk Wheel.
Note: This page isnt maintained here, please goto www.gentles.info/link.

at this site: Webcam & AVI Archive: Review the construction. Visit the Drive Chamber: Makes the Wheel go round! Travel on the Falkirk Wheel: The virtual experience! Doors and Seals: Sealing Falkirk Wheel caissons. Buses Elephants & Kettles Falkirk Wheel statistics. Royal Opening May 2002: The Link is now complete! Picture Gallery: the memorable images. Leamington Lift Bridge: The last bridge raised again! First Rotation: See the Falkirk Wheel go round.

Re-instating the canals is a landmark project, bringing life back to the waterways, making them an attractive place again. Where the canals were once joined by a flight of locks a bold and imaginative boat-lift (shown above) is the center piece of the whole project.

The objective of this resource is to capture and collect material and links in one place. The resource has 100s of images of the works included, as well as links to other sites to try to provide a complete record of the project. The images have been reduced in resolution and highly compressed for web delivery.

James Gentles.
(if sending e-mail edit out the SPAM)
 
Contents

• Beginnings
• Concepts
• Construction: Pictures and Stories (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002)
• Construction: The Falkirk Wheel Webcam
• Opening Events
• Press Releases
• Maps
• Reference Information
• Links
• Credits

Beginnings

The following items detail the history of Scotland's Lowland Canals:

• The Forth and Clyde Canal Society has a short history of the canal, and the roots of the restoration.
• A short history of the Forth & Clyde Canal and Union Canal from the Millennium Link website ©.
• A short history of the Union Canal from Falkirk-Wheel.com.
• A History of the Canals from http://www.seagulltrust.org.uk
• pre-Millennium Link history of all Scotland's canals can be found on the Scottish Inland Waterways Association site.
• An award winning technical paper on the Regeneration of the Canals from the Institution of Civil Engineer's Civil Engineer magazine contains much engineering history and detail of the proposed works. This was published in 2000. Visit the Thomas Telford web site and find Journals / Civil Engineering / Volume CE138 / Issue 02.
• James Perry's Lowland Canal Guide has many good pictures of the canal in the late 1990s, showing it's state immediately before the Millennium link work started. The Tour also contains updates with the early Millennium Link work. This is part of James Perry's on-line web pages.
• The Edinburgh end of the Union Canal now ends at Lochrin Basin, this wasn't the Original Terminus.

Although the seeds of the project were sown in the 1980s, British Waterways officially launched it's plans for the Millennium Link in 1994, and secured sufficient funding by 1997. Even at this early stage there were bold plans for a landmark boatlift at Tamfourhill near Falkirk. 

The original Ferris Falkirk Wheel idea was put aside in favour of the current design. Details of the Ferris Wheel are available, originally posted on the now defunct www.falkirkweb.co.uk/millenni.htm site, which (fortunately) hadn't been updated since ~1998. There are also some details of wind-tunnel testing at this early stage, this page is duplicated on this site although it originally appeared on the web-site of BMT Fluid Mechanics. Material from Nicoll Russell Studios Architects concept material can be found on their site also.

It is also interesting to note that most published material contains an image created at this concept stage, mainly the view from the NW. This rarer view from the air shows the whole complex, but is still based on early concept drawings. Only this view from the NW (which the image at the top of this page is based on) and this view from the NE appear to represent an artist's impression based on detailed engineering drawings.

A video clip of the Union Canal and the proposed Falkirk Wheel is available in the OVERVIEW - ANIMATION section of RMJMs website. There is other video material not published here.

There is also an interesting article with perspectives from the Client, the Architect and the Engineer from e4engineering.

An award winning technical paper on the Regeneration of the Canals from the Institution of Civil Engineer's Civil Engineer magazine contains much engineering history and detail of the proposed works. This was published in 2000. If you want to understand British Waterways corporate strategy towards canal regeneration there is another paper from the Institution of Civil Engineer's proceedings: Municipal Engineer, Urban regeneration opportunities for leisure, tourism and recreation, written in 1998.

A series of mainly photographic stories, charting the progress of the Millennium Link and the state of the canals through 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. There are a lot of compressed images in these stories, please be patient when they load, normally you can start to read the start of the page whilst the bottom of the page loads.

There is a good record of the construction project, on the former www.millenniumlink.org.uk site copied into this resource ©.

BLACK bullets are material on this web-site, BLUE bullets take you to material on other web-sites. To give an idea of location there is a red dot on this maplet of the Glasgow - Falkirk - Edinburgh corridor.

•  12^th March 1999: Secretary of State for Scotland, Donald Dewar MP, officially starts the work at Blairdardie Road in Glasgow. Unfortunately Donald would not live to see the project completed.
•  March 1999 thru October 2000: Duntreath Avenue Obstruction (James Perry)
•  March 1999 thru October 2000: Great Western Road Obstruction (James Perry)
•  May 1999 thru February 2000: Vellore Road Obstruction (James Perry)
•  May 1999 thru May 2000: M8 Obstruction (James Perry)
•  May 1999 thru June 2000: A801 Obstruction (James Perry)
•  June 1999 thru April 2000: Greendykes Road Obstruction (James Perry)
•  July 1999 thru March 2000: Cleveden Road Obstruction (James Perry)

•  August 1999 thru May 2001: Falkirk Obstructions (James Perry)
•  January 2000: Millennium Link - Smaller works (James Perry)
•  May 2000 thru March 2001: Wester Hailes Obstruction (Phase 1) (James Perry)
•  May 2000 thru March 2001: Wester Hailes Obstruction (Phase 2) (James Perry)
•  July 2000: Constructing the Tunnel. from the Falkirk-Wheel Website
•  July - August 2000 Union Canal Dredging, Redding, Falkirk. (Jim Coyle)
•  October 2000 thru Spring 2001: Clydebank Obstructions (James Perry)
•  9^th December 2000: Visit to Union Canal extension, Tunnel, and Falkirk Wheel site. [275kBytes] (James Gentles)
• 9^th December 2000: Forth & Clyde Canal (various) [142kBytes] (James Gentles)

•  14^th February 2001: Bainsford Lock Resiting. {45Kbytes] (Jim Coyle)
• 25^th February 2001: Re-visit 9^th December 2000 locations. [92kBytes] (James Gentles)
•  March 2001: Wester_Hails_update (James Perry)
•  5^th April 2001: Re-visit 9^th December 2000 locations. [264kBytes] (James Gentles)
•  April 2001: Tour of Butterley Engineering to see the Falkirk Wheel being fabricated. [314kBytes] (Brian L Dominic)
•  12^th May 2001: The Union Canal, Glen Tunnel, Falkirk Interchange, and Carron Sea-Lock. [308kBytes] (James Gentles)
•  24^th May 2001: Falkirk Wheel Site Visit. from the Falkirk-Wheel Website
•  30^th June 2001: Falkirk Wheel Site Visit. from the Falkirk-Wheel Website
•  July - October 2001: Falkirk Wheel main components arrive by abnormal load. [235kBytes] (Derek Sneddon) 
•  12^th August 2001: The Falkirk Wheel immediately before the main wheel erection. [123kBytes] (Peter McCulloch & James Gentles)
•  12^th August 2001: The Clydebank Drop Lock. [186kBytes] (James Gentles)
•  16^th August 2001: The Falkirk Wheel, the crane for the heavy lift arrives. [100kBytes] (Peter McCulloch)
•  20^th August 2001: The Falkirk Wheel, heavy lift of the Axle and east caisson [336kBytes] (Richard McCulloch)
•  22^nd August 2001: The Falkirk Wheel, heavy lift of the west caisson. [459kBytes] (Peter McCulloch)
•  20^th - 22^nd August 2001: Falkirk Wheel Axle and Caisson Lift from the Bridge 19-40 Canal Society
•  8^th September 2001: A trip along the Union Canal [950kBytes] and the Almond Lade. [40kBytes] (James Gentles)
•  October 2001: First Glimpse of the Falkirk Wheel. from the Falkirk Wheel Website
•  9^th September 2001: The Carron Sea Lock. [265kBytes] (James Gentles)
•  September-December 2001: The Union Canal Extension, and Tunnel [320kBytes] (Peter McCulloch, Richard McCulloch & James Gentles)
•  12^th October 2001: The Falkirk Wheel, telephoto pictures [81kBytes] (Richard McCulloch)
•  24^th October 2001: The new Rough Castle Aqueduct. from the Falkirk Wheel Website
•  25^th October 2001: First Trial Rotation [200kBytes] (Richard McCulloch) There is also a webcam animation from this day [542kBytes].
•  September-November 2001: Edinburgh Quay, Fountainbridge [397kBytes] (James Gentles)
•  23^rd November 2001: Falkirk Wheel Site Visit from Dr Scott Arthur, Heriot Watt University.
•  24^th November 2001: Falkirk Wheel Site Visit from the NB Gamebird site
•  11^th December 2001: Falkirk Wheel: First Official Rotation [60kBytes] (James Gentles & Peter McCulloch)
•  16^th December 2001: Falkirk Wheel Site Visit (additional GOOD material) from the NB Gamebird site
•  26^th December 2001: The Falkirk Wheel & Basin from the NW [170kBytes] (Peter McCulloch, Richard McCulloch & James Gentles)
• January-May 2002: Leamington Lift Bridge [349kBytes] (James Gentles) 
  Additional Leamington Lift Bridge material from Roy Brown, and good graphics about how it works from www.moveablebridges.co.uk (select the Projects tab)
• January-May 2002: Edinburgh Quay- Development or False Start? [83kBytes] (James Gentles)
• 3^rd March 2002: Union Canal extension update [50kBytes] (Peter McCulloch)
• 4^th May 2002: Glasgow to Falkirk on the Forth & Clyde Canal [435kBytes] (James Gentles)
• May 2002: Doors and Seals on the Falkirk Wheel, how do they work? [245kBytes] (Peter McCulloch)
• and finally, 1997 to 2002 A view of Rosebank, Falkirk [190kBytes] (Robert Walker)

There is a good record of the construction project, on the former www.millenniumlink.org.uk site copied into this resource ©. There is also an Excel Spreadsheet (PDF) of the obstructions and works, with details of progress and projected completion dates. This information was taken from British Waterways Millennium Link quarterly newsletter, The Link.

British Waterways, in conjunction with http://www.sld.co.uk/ provided 2 web cameras on site at the end of February 2001, a fixed camera and a camera moving through several preset positions. The webcams were withdrawn in May 2003. Over 240 archived images on this resource were saved roughly fortnightly. There are multiple images per day when there was major activity on site. Although there was no copyright notice on the British Waterways website, this material is presented here for private and personal purposes only and not for commercial gain:

• FIXED camera view of the Falkirk Wheel. Over 130 images that can be accessed in various ways:
• Chronologically from March 2001 thru August, September, November, February 2002 to May 2002.
• By events: First view, Wheel preparation, Wheel arrives, Heavy Lifts, West beaks, First rotation, East Beaks, Basin Filled, Boats!, Opened!
• Composite Webcam images of the completed Wheel and Visitor Centre, February 2002.
• There are also various good AVIs and Animations of the Webcams.
• PANORAMAS of the site, from March 2001 thru August, December to May 2002.
• New Building view from July 2001 thru November 2001 to May 2002.
• Visitor Centre view from March 2001 thru August, November to May 2002.
• Wheel Axle view from March 2001 thru August, to May 2002.

Images collected by James Gentles, Jim Swift, and Peter McCulloch.

•  7^th May 2000: Opening of the Union Canal M8 Obstruction from the Bridge Inn, Ratho
•  May 2001: Reproduction of the leaflet advertising the re-opening of the Forth & Clyde Canal.
•  25^th - 28^th May 2001: The re-opening of the Forth and Clyde Canal, lots of pictures from http://falkirk-wheel.com.
•  26^th May 2001: The re-opening of the Forth and Clyde Canal [207kBytes] (James Gentles & Peter McCulloch)
•  27^th May 2001: Forth and Clyde Canal Reopening (James Perry)
•  25^th - 28^th May 2001: Forth & Clyde Canal Opening Flotilla from the Bridge19-40 Canal Society.
•  25^th - 28^th May 2001: Forth & Clyde Canal Opening Cruise from the NB Gamebird site.
•  25^th - 28^th May 2001: Forth & Clyde Canal Opening from the Seagull Trust.
•   12^th June 2001: Official Opening by HRH Prince Charles from the Bridge19-40 Canal Society.
•   25^th August 2001: Opening of the Wester Hailes section of the Union Canal from the NB Gamebird site.
•   25^th August 2001: Opening of the Wester Hailes section by people of Wester Hailes at Whale Arts Agency.
•  March 2002: In March 2002 this site contained a holding page, but it will become the British Waterways official Falkirk Wheel web-site.
•  March 2002: Reproduction of the leaflet advertising the opening of The Falkirk Wheel.
•  18^th April 2002: The Falkirk Wheel opening is delayed after a vandalism attack.
•  22-26^th May 2002: Ratho to the Royal Opening of the Link at the Falkirk Wheel from NB Gamebird
•  23^rd May 2002: Preparations for the Royal Opening [82kBytes] (Peter McCulloch)
•   23^rd May 2002: Flotilla heads along the Union Canal to Falkirk Wheel opening from the Bridge 19-40 Canal Society
•   24^th May 2002: The Royal Opening of the Millennium Link & Falkirk Wheel [580kBytes] (James Gentles)
•  24^th May 2002: Various Web accounts of the actual ceremony from Bennett Associates , Inland Waterways Association, Kilsyth Community Council, Capercaillie Cruisers, The Bridge Inn & James Perry.
•   1^st July 2002: The Falkirk Wheel Experience: A virtual trip on the Falkirk Wheel [686kBytes] (James, Peter, Richard & Tony)
•   2^nd April 2003: View the Drive Chamber, a technical tour of The Falkirk Wheel [401kBytes] (James Gentles, Peter McCulloch, Allan Rhynas, Tony Cowlin)

Within a year of opening, in the Spring of 2003, extension work to the Visitor Centre, improvements to the facilities for boaters, and a major path upgrade had begun, this is only the end of the beginning!

The following is a list of press releases, mainly from British Waterways and the Millennium Link organisation, and sources of broadcast material about the project.

• Millennium Link website News ©.
• British Waterways (Scotland) website Press Release.
• Some minor details on Edinburgh Quay developments can be found at these sites:
• Globe Street had information on Edinburgh Quay (26^th July 2001), but they now make a charge.
• Edinburgh Architecture: Detailed Planning consent granted for Lochrin Basin (2^nd August 2001)
• Edinburgh Quay website.
• BBC News on-line Use their search facility to find articles on the Millennium Link from their archive.
• Scottish Executive Press Releases. Search the archive using keywords Falkirk Wheel and Canal.
• Falkirk Herald on-line Use their search facility to find articles from this local newspaper archive.
• Scotsman Publication (The Scotsman & The Evening News, Edinburgh based). Use their search facility.
• The Herald Publications (The Herald & The Evening Times, Glasgow based). Use their search facility.

If all this is too much there is a single page of Media Quotes for your to browse!

Where to look for maps, and aerial photographs of the canals.

• So where is Central Scotland, Falkirk and The Falkirk Wheel in particular?
• Diagram of Edinburgh Basins in 1901 (source unknown) (explanation)
• 1:50000 Map fragment with the Falkirk Wheel manually added (original map, unaltered & copyright)
• 1940s Aerial View of Lochrin Basin, Edinburgh (Roy Brown)
• Historic Maps of the UK
• Contemporary Maps and aerial photographs of the UK
• The Forth and Clyde Canal Society's diagrammatic Map of the Canal.

A selection of resources, giving background information on the Canals and the Falkirk Wheel.

• 1998: British Waterways corporate strategy towards canal regeneration is explained in a paper from the Institution of Civil Engineer's proceedings: Municipal Engineer, Urban regeneration opportunities for leisure, tourism and recreation. Visit the Thomas Telford web site and find Journals / Municipal Engineer / Volume ME127 / Issue 04 (Paper 11819). 
• Spring 2000: An excellent award winning technical paper on the Regeneration of the Canals from the Institution of Civil Engineer's Civil Engineer magazine contains much engineering history and detail of the proposed works. This was published in 2000. Visit the Thomas Telford web site and find Journals / Civil Engineering / Volume CE138 / Issue 02. A summary of this paper was given by the authors at a lecture given in Edinburgh on the 4^th March 2002, at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
• Other minor information can be found by searching the Institution of Civil Engineers webpages.
• Spring 2001: SKF's magazine "Focus". Article on Falkirk Wheel Bearings. (http://www.skf.co.uk/)
• Summer 2001: Eureka-Findlay's use of SKF bearings for the Falkirk Wheel. (http://www.eureka.findlay.co.uk/)
• August 2001: Lusas stress analysis software used on the Falkirk Wheel. (http://www.lusas.com/)
• 21^st September 2001: Good technical article, with info on the heavy lifts and pictures from Architect's Journal Plus (http://www.ajplus.co.uk/)
• October 2001: National Agency for Finite Element Methods & Standards BenchMark [pdf] (http://www.nafems.org)
  (This material is well presented, but similar to that on the Lusas site above, and Tony Gee site below)
• Autumn 2001: Tony Gee Partnership, Consulting Civil and Structural Engineers. (http://www.tgp.co.uk)
• December 2001: Kelsey Roofing Industries provided Falkirk Wheel Support Structure cladding (http://www.kelseyroofing.co.uk)
• 2001/2002: RMJM Engineering (main contractor) Technical web pages (www.rmjm.com)
• 2002: Article on the Falkirk Wheel in SKF's magazine, Evolution (1-02).
• Material and pictures of the Falkirk Wheel Construction from Bennett Associates, (search their site for Falkirk Wheel).
• British Waterways Skipper Guides for the Scottish Lowland Canals.
• The web-site of the Edinburgh Quay property Development, Fountainbridge.
• Information on the discovery of the "Soliton" by John Scott Russell on the Union Canal in 1834 can be found on-line at Heriot Watt University.
• Falkirk Herald's on-line presence, FalkirkToday, coverage of The Millennium Link. This formed the basis of a supplement to the Falkirk Herald on the 23^rd May 2002.
• May 2002: Critical Architectural Appraisal of the Falkirk Wheel by Hugh Pearman (syndicated to the Sunday Times)
• June 2002: Fairfield Control Systems have a Case Study of the Falkirk Wheel control system on their site.

The following are links to sites with a valuable Millennium Link content. Any other suggestions? (remember to edit the SPAM out of the e-mail address!)

• www.millenniumlink.org.uk: The official project web-site is no longer is available, but parts are on this resource ©.
• TheFalkirkWheel: The official Falkirk Wheel web-site.
• James Perry's Canal Site: Good material on the early development work in 1999 and 2000.
• Falkirk-Wheel: Diverse site on the Link, includes information on history, leisure and recreation.
• Falkirkwheel.info: Good engineering overview from RMJM
• British Waterways (Scotland): Official British Waterways (canal operators) site.
• FalkirkToday: Website of the Falkirk Herald local newspaper.
• The Seagull Trust: Canal Cruising for the disabled and helping to revive the waterways.
• NB Gamebird: The view from a real canal user.
• Forth and Clyde Canal Society: Good enthusiasts site.
• Linlithgow Union Canal Society: Good enthusiasts site.

Credits

Most picture material on this site is credited to James Gentles, Peter McCulloch, Jim Coyle, Richard McCulloch, Derek Sneddon and Robert Walker. You can view highlights in our Picture Gallery. Other material is linked to public access web sites. Please respect the ownership of all the material and the images!

The thumbnails in this page are mostly details taken from the new concrete bridges built during the Millennium Link project (taken from the new bridges at Lock 16 and Kingsknowe). There are also mason's marks from the refurbishment of the existing Canal bridges and details of original mile posts or division markers on the Union Canal. The Swan & Bridge logo was used for the Millennium Project, and the logo of the biggest funder, The Millennium Commission.

The Falkirk Wheel logos are in addition to the British Waterways family of logos.

The picture, by Richard, on the right sums it all up really:
Engineering, Elegance, Enterprise, Environment.
(Explination!)

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This site moved in January 2004 to www.gentles.info/link please look there for the most up to date information.