Capital Works Programme 2025/2026
Find out more about the major engineering works taking place on the Scottish Canals network in 2025 and 2026
In managing Scotland’s canal network (and the many accompanying buildings, reservoirs, and hectares of land), we need to comply with more than 140 pieces of legislation.
Most important is public safety. Priority for investment is always given to works that ensure safe navigation, keep paths and infrastructure in good repair, prevent flooding, or provide additional drainage to local communities. At the same time, we need to maintain high standards of water quality, historic conservation, and ecological management.
No matter how pristine the network, it also needs to have utility and purpose for Scotland’s people and visitors. This means maintaining spaces that are open, accessible and safe where people can pursue a variety of leisure activities, immerse themselves in nature, and get together for music, festivals, art and community events.
The canals are also one of Scotland’s proudest engineering feats, boasting many world-famous names amongst their founders – from Thomas Telford to James Watt. Today, our engineering team and partners are forging new achievements in the use of smart technologies, remote operations, and sustainable approaches to water management.
How engineering works are funded
To carry out essential works on the network, Scottish Canals has a Capital Investment Programme worth £12.6 million for 2025 – 2026 (financial year), funded by the Scottish Government. This budget covers major engineering works and upgrades; the development of towpath and active travel routes; as well as maintenance and repair of the many bridges, aqueducts, properties and assets along the network.
Alongside this core investment, we collaborate with other organisations and groups to bring in third-party funding. We also run commercial activities through our property and tourism assets, so that we can generate income for re-investment into the network. In 2024-5, we generated almost half of our own income.
Find out how investment in the canal network brings benefit to the people of Scotland.
Some highlights from this year’s programme
Here are the biggest engineering and construction projects planned or already in progress for this financial year (correct at the date of publication).
More detailed announcements of upcoming works will be posted on our Projects and Ongoing Works pages.
Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals and Traditional Skills
We are partnering with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to turn the derelict former Barr’s factory (which sits behind the Union Inn at Lock 16 on the Forth & Clyde Canal in Camelon) into Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals & Traditional Skills.
The building will provide facilities for training in heritage skills (such as stonemasonry, thatchery and black-smithing) as well as vital conservation work.
Funding for this project comes from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (read the announcement).
Falkirk Flight: Lock Gate Replacement and Upgrades (£3.5 million)
The Forth & Clyde Canal is approaching the 25th anniversary of its re-opening under the historic Millennium Link Project, which turned the derelict and polluted Lowland canal network into a thriving blue-green corridor through Scotland’s Central Belt.
Twenty-five years is also the average life-span of oak lock gates, and to ensure the Canal remains open and navigable, we are embarking on a major programme of gate replacements.
Altogether, 10 lock gates will be lifted and replaced by our contractor Mackenzie Construction, who are also leading the current lock bypass installation at Lock 16. While navigation is suspended (until March 2026) and water levels are lowered, we will take the opportunity to inspect the Canal’s structure and conduct additional upgrade and repair works.
Learn about the preparation work: Fish Rescue between locks 11 and 15
Townhead Reservoir: Weir and Spillway Replacement (£1.3 million)
Townhead Reservoir (also known as Banton Loch) is located just outside of Kilsyth in Lanarkshire and provides around 45% of the water needed for the Forth & Clyde Canal. It is one of 19 reservoirs that we manage across our network: maintaining control over the flows and levels of water in them is vital to preventing flooding or dewatering along the network.
From September 2025, we will start work to replace the old auxiliary spillway from the reservoir (a spillway is basically a staircase made of reinforced concrete that allows water to flow out of a reservoir into a river or canal). An improved draw-off facility will give us more robust control over water flow downstream, too.
We are also packaging up the rebuild of the reservoir’s weir as part of this programme of works as recent inspections have revealed that the structure is beginning to degrade.
Fort Augustus: Lock Gate Replacement and Upgrades (£1 million)
Following a £1.65 million investment in replacement of the lock gate cills on the Caledonian Canal at Fort Augustus in 2024/5, we are now poised to begin the next phase of upgrade works on this section of the Canal.
This year, we will replace a number of gates and their hydraulic control systems with electrical actuators (actuators – they open and close the gates). This work is essential to ensuring that the Caledonian Canal remains safe for navigation by the many barges, pleasure boats and freight vessels that use it.
This is the final phase of major works at this section of the Canal for the foreseeable future.
Improvements for Moorings & Boating Customers (£228,000)
There are more than 600 people living in boats along Scotland’s canal network, while a further 3,000 vessels pass through our waterways and harbours each year.
We always invest part of our budget in essential dredging works to ensure safe navigation, and this year we are adding a series of improvement projects identified under our new Moorings Strategy.
These include:
- New digital systems for managing moorings and licenses
- Improvements to fuel and pump-out facilities
- Improved postal facilities
- And operational upgrades across all canals (smart bollards, metering)
Maryhill Lock 21 Bypass (£150,000)
A lock bypass is a channel that is constructed alongside a canal lock, diverting water around the lock, so that water levels are easier to control (without having to open and close the lock gates). At the start of this year, a bypass was installed at Lock 20 (Wyndford Road) on the Forth & Clyde Canal and a similar installation is in progress at Lock 16 (Camelon). Maryhill is the next one in plan – works are scheduled to commence in the autumn.
A canal bypass brings several advantages:
Sustainability and cost efficiency: A bypass reduces the need for diesel-fuelled over-pumping and simplifies maintenance, reducing the Canal’s carbon footprint, disruption to local residents, and running costs.
Flood risk management: By offering additional drainage in a neighbourhood, the bypass helps the canal to soak up surface water and contributes to flood risk management.
Better control: A bypass offers greater capacity for managing water levels and the flow of large volumes of water when our control teams identify potential issues with the level of the canal.