Welland Canal refilled

After being drained for the winter, the Welland Canal is being refilled for the upcoming 2011 shipping season. The part of the canal seen here is between Locks #3 and #2, right underneath the Garden City Skyway in St.Catharines. Lock 3 is in the far distance.

The following series of photos were taken just two days apart - the 'before' shots on Mar.7, 2011, and the 'after' pictures on Mar.9, 2011 - and show how quickly the water has risen to cover the canal bed.

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below: Mar.7, 2011 looking southwards, standing on the west-side of the canal, north of the Skyway. The concrete piers of the Skyway are in the centre. At the bottom is seen the cribbed safety island protecting the bridge piers from damage by a ship. The Homer lift bridge is in the distance.

above: Mar.9, 2011 - the rising water has completely covered the cribbing, and has run around the pier supports.

below: looking eastward across the canal

above: same view, as the big ditch fills with rising water.

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below: looking northward from the west-side of the Welland canal, standing just south of the Skyway.

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above: a monument under the Skyway is in memory of  Conrad Stenzel, Douglas Shand, David McKinley and Gordon Thomas. On June 8, 1993 they were part of a bridge crew working as painters underneath the deck of the QEW when their scaffold collapsed, plunging them 125 feet to their deaths.

(see related post here)

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below: looking at the north-side of the Homer drawbridge over the Welland Canal.

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above: a closer view of the north-side of the Homer bridge's eastern abutment,

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below:  some fanciful springtime views of the Skyway

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For more views on the canal see Welland Canal Vista.

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