Pre-1933 link map of the
lock flight at Falkirk The two canals served by the wheel were previously connected by a series of 11
locks. With a difference in height, it required of water per run and took most of a day to pass through the flight. By the 1930s these locks had fallen into disuse, and were dismantled in 1933. and by the mid-1970s the Union Canal was filled in at both ends, rendered impassable by
culverts in two places and run in pipes under a housing estate. The
British Waterways Board (BWB) came into existence on 1 January 1963, the day the Forth and Clyde Canal was closed, with the objective of finding a broad strategy for the future of canals in the United Kingdom. Restoration of sea-to-sea navigation was deemed too expensive at the time, but there were to be no further restrictions on its use. In 1996, when sufficient funds had been accumulated, the Commission invited applications to "do anything they thought desirable ... to support worthwhile causes which would mark the year 2000 and the start of the new millennium." The plans called for the canals to be opened to their original operating dimensions, with of headroom above the water. The whole project had a budget of £78 million. On 14 February 1997, the Commission announced it would support the Link with £32 million of funding, 42% of the project cost. The Wheel and its associated basin was priced at £17 million, more than a fifth of the total budget. Another £46 million had to be raised in the next two years before construction could commence, with contributions from BWB, seven local councils,
Scottish Enterprise, and private donations being augmented by £8.6 million from the
European Regional Development Fund. After being asked to reconsider, a 20-strong team of architects and engineers was assembled by British Waterways. Under the leadership of
Tony Kettle from architects
RMJM, the initial concepts and images were created with the mechanical concepts proposed by the design team from Butterley and M G Bennetts. This was an intense period of work, with the final design concept completed in a three-week period during the summer of 1999. The final design was a co-operative effort between the British Waterways Board, engineering consultants
Arup,
Butterley Engineering and RMJM. Diagrams of gear systems that had been proposed in the very first concepts were modelled by Kettle using his eight year-old daughter's
Lego. Drawings and artist impressions were shown to clients and funders. The visitor centre was designed by another RMJM architect,
Paul Stallan. Inspirations for the design include a double-headed Celtic axe (a
bearded axe), the propeller of a ship and the ribcage of a whale. Kettle described the Wheel as "a beautiful, organic flowing thing, like the spine of a fish," Since 2007, the Falkirk Wheel has been featured on the obverse of the new series of
£50 notes issued by the
Bank of Scotland. The series of notes commemorates Scottish engineering achievements with illustrations of bridges in Scotland such as the
Glenfinnan Viaduct and the
Forth Bridge.
Construction In March 1999
Donald Dewar, the
Secretary of State for Scotland, cut the first
sod of turf to begin work at lock 31 on the Forth and Clyde Canal. The wheel was fully constructed and assembled at the
Butterley Engineering plant in
Ripley, Derbyshire. The structure was then dismantled in the summer of 2001, and transported on 35 lorry loads to Falkirk, before being reassembled into five sections on the ground and lifted into place. Construction of the canal required of excavation, a canal tunnel of
diameter,
aqueducts of and , three sets of locks and a number of bridges, as well as of access roads. of loosely packed backfill from the mining operations containing large
sandstone boulders was not considered adequately solid
foundation for the size of the structure, so
deep foundations with thirty concrete piles socketed onto the
bedrock were used. The damage, which cost £350,000 to repair, resulted in the dry well being flooded, damaging electrical and hydraulic equipment. ==Operation==