The Fens Waterways Link is a project to improve recreational boating opportunities in the counties of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, England.[1] By a combination of improvements to existing waterways and the construction of new links a circular route between Lincoln, Peterborough, Ely and Boston is planned. The project is being organised by the Environment Agency and financed from the Regional Development Agency and the European Union. In conjunction with a separate new project, a canal between Milton Keynes and Bedford, the waterways of The Fens will be accessible by broad boats from the rest of Britain's canal network. Completion is expected in about 2014.
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The Environment Agency has obtained a "significant proportion" of the £8m required for phase one. Starting from the north, the first development is the provision of a new tidal lock from the Haven in Boston to the South Forty-Foot Drain, opened to traffic on 20 March 2009.[2] This will lead to a new link to the River Glen, a tributary of the River Welland, at Guthram Gowt, providing a route to Spalding. Funding for phase two of the project, which will involve widening of the South Forty-foot drain from Donington to a new road crossing under the A151, a new lock and a junction with the River Glen at Guthram Gowt has been secured from the East Midlands Development Agency.[3]
Another major innovation will be a new cut between the Welland and the Nene downstream of Peterborough, and improvements to the Middle Level Navigations between the Nene and Great Ouse.[4]
The completion of the project would be the long discussed canal between Bedford and Milton Keynes following the course of the Great Ouse and joining the Grand Union Canal, mooted as the "first new canal in over a century". The funding for this appears to be problematic but as well as providing for the first time an inland route for broad boats (up to 3.2m 0r 10'6" wide) between the north and south of England it would serve as a flood relief channel for new development in the areas through which it is to pass. This extra benefit may release funding from wider sources.[5]
 Proposed route |
 Black Sluice Lock, where the South Forty-Foot Drain joins The Haven at Boston |
 The South Forty-Foot Drain at Pointon, between Boston and Guthram Gowt. Here its origin as a drainage channel, set below the level of the surrounding fields, is very evident |
 The water level in the River Glen, here pictured looking west towards Guthram Gowt, is maintained by a tidal sluice at Surfleet Seas End. The sluice will be replaced by a lock |
 This section of the Car Dyke, near Eye, will be restored to navigation as part of the Link if problems of culverting under modern road improvements can be solved |
 The Cat's Water Drain is under consideration as an alternative route should the Car Dyke prove unsuitable |
 The Forty Foot Navigation, 1997. A new cut to bypass this shallow section may be constructed |
 The Forty Foot Navigation at Welches Dam on the Old Bedford River. The lock was restored in 1991 |
 The route along Well Creek crosses the Mullicourt Aqueduct above the Middle Level Drain |
   | Fens Waterways Link - Environment Agency - Page Not Found |
| | New lock will be key to waterways future. - New lock will be key to waterways future - Boston Standard |
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