Smart Canal Enabling Works and Bypass Completion at Lock 20, Forth & Clyde Canal

Over the winter of 2024/2025, Scottish Canals worked with Mackenzie Construction to install a lock bypass at Lock 20 (Wyndford Lock), which is located near Banknock. This is a key summit-level lock, making it a crucial point for controlling the flow of water towards the eastern end of the Forth & Clyde Canal. 

By incorporating telemetry equipment, the lock bypass installation supports our work to evolve the Glasgow Smart Canal. This is a 20-mile stretch of the Forth & Clyde Canal, running through the North of Glasgow and out to Wyndford Lock 20. Using sensors and data from the Met Office, this section of the canal can automatically lower its water levels ahead of heavy rainfall events. Acting as an urban sponge, the canal provides additional drainage for surface water run-off from neighbouring housing estates. 

The initiative has already unlocked brownfield sites along the canal for housing development (3,500 new homes are in the pipeline for Dundashill as a result), which could not have been developed without this drainage solution.

The Smart Canal is one of the ways that Scottish Canals is repurposing Scotland’s historic canal network in ways that will help mitigate the impacts of climate change for canalside communities.

You can find out more about lock bypasses, our Net Zero Routemap and our new project on the Crinan Canal to assess future climate change impacts on the canal and canalside communities.

Next phase of the works – End of August 2026 to November 2026

The next phase of the programme will be to complete the remaining works necessary to enable automatic operation of the bypass around Lock 20. 

This includes:

• Installing bypass inlet chamber stoplogs
• Installing the penstock sluice and actuator (which will open and close to limit the volume of water flowing through the bypass pipe)
• Installing safety signage
• Installing a kiosk to house the penstock sluice and actuator
• Reinstating the canal bank on each side of the bypass inlet
• Installing smart canal-related telemetry equipment and utilising ducting installed during the works in 2025
• Removing steel sheet piles, allowing water to fill the bypass chamber
• Testing and commissioning the system

Since completing the initial stage of the works in April 2025, we have been completing the design and consulting with the relevant regulatory bodies for the final stage of the works. Mackenzie Construction will begin some minor ducting works on Monday 3rd August and then start the wider work programme on Monday 31st August. The project is expected to be completed within eight weeks with no weekend or evening working.

Scottish Canals has invested over £600,000 on the Lock 20 Bypass Project as of June 2026