Vendover arm canal - an early hydraulic use of asphalt.

Recent restoration of the 1797 Wendover arm of the Grand Union Canal in England has revealed one of the earliest uses of asphalt as a waterproofing liner. Following excessive leakage, a length of 4.4 km of the arm was lined in 1857 with coal tar asphalt as an economic alternative to repuddling with clay. However, within 13 years the canal was leaking as before and eventually closed in 1904. As this paper reports, the failure appears to have resulted from use of an excessively rich lining mixture and poor construction practice plus damage from boats, ice breaking and earth movements. It was nevertheless a novel, if ultimately unsuccessful, approach to repairing a seriously leaking canal economically and constituted a significant step in the use of asphalt for hydraulic engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]