Canal lock to be restored for $1 million

Once lock 11 is restored, mule-drawn boats will be able to pass through it.

By: Linda Seida
   NEW HOPE — A $1 million restoration project at the Delaware Canal State Park in the borough is on track to begin this summer, according to Susan Taylor, executive director of Friends of the Delaware Canal.
   The project will restore Lock 11 on the canal to its original working condition. When work is complete, mule-drawn boats will be able to pass through a working lock, something that hasn’t happened for more than seven decades.
   "At long last, this will be the first of 23 locks to be restored to working order," Ms. Taylor told the Borough Council Jan. 14.
   Work is expected to be completed in about a year.
   Ms. Taylor congratulated the borough for being first in line for the series of restoration projects. Federal funds earmarked for the canal projects were distributed by "a very competitive" selection process, she said.
   The park spans 60 miles from Easton in Northampton County to Bristol in Bucks County. The canal is "the only remaining continuously intact remnant of the 19th-century towpath canal era," according to a statement issued by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
   "Our long-term goal is to return the 60-mile canal to a first-class recreational facility for hikers, bikers, canoeists and heritage travelers," then-Gov. Mark Schweiker said when the plan to restore Lock 11 was announced in September.
   "Once complete, we’ll see a lock working the same way it did more than 150 years ago," he said. "In its time, this lock helped thousands of mule-drawn barges haul millions of tons of Pennsylvania coal to cities on the Eastern seaboard."
   To see details of how a lock works, readers can go to The Friends of the Delaware Canal Web site at www.fodc.org.
   The restoration of Lock 11 will include the rebuilding of stone walls downstream of the lock and the repair or replacement of the timbered lock floor, a drop gate located upstream of the lock and two timber gates.
   Also planned is a wicket house or wicket shanty. The small structure houses the gears and working mechanisms that operate the lock, according to Ms. Taylor.
   The Historic Delaware Canal Improvement Corp., which was established in 2000 for the purpose of raising funds for such projects on the canal, was "instrumental" in helping to acquire funding for restoration work on Lock 11, according to the DCNR.
   The park is a National Historic Landmark. The towpath is designated a National Heritage Hiking Trail.