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In the late 1970s the bottom of the tunnel showed signs of lifting and in 1979 the tunnel was closed until it briefly re-opened in the summer of 1980 with BW crewing boats through. By late 1980 early 1981 such was the movement of the tunnel bed the walls were found to be lacking support and the tunnel was closed.
£4.3 million pounds was the cost of removing the centre section of the 3km tunnell and lining it with pre cast concrete rings.
The tunnel re-opened to boats on 22 August 1984 hence the 25th Anniversary celebrations.
Some pictures can be found HERE and don`t forget to click part 2 at the bottom of the page.
A lot of activities took place on the Saturday both in Stoke Bruerne and Blisworth programme
but for me the highlights were a talk and slide show by 2 of the tunnel engineers from Mowlem who were on the lining team. Following the talk i sat in the Museum and watched the archive news reports and other film clips made during the repair.
All day Saturday a steady stream of people got to see the living quarters of a working boat family and what you see in the pic is it, about 8 feet long.
If anyone missed the w`end celebrations the next event is "Village at war" Oct. 3-4th follow link to the left of the page.
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