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- The Dudley Canal is a canal passing through Dudley in the West Midlands of England. The canal is part of the English and Welsh connected network of navigable inland waterways, and in particular forms part of the popular Stourport Ring narrowboat cruising route. The first short section, which connected to the Stourbridge Canal, opened in 1779, and this was connected through the Dudley Tunnel to the Birmingham Canal system in 1792. Almost immediately, work started on an extension, called Line No. 2, which ran through another long tunnel at Lapal, to reach the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. This was completed in 1798, but significant trade had to wait until the Worcester and Birmingham was completed in 1802. In 1846, the company amalgamated with the Birmingham Canal Navigations, and various improvements followed, including the Netherton Tunnel, of a similar length to the Dudley Tunnel, but much bigger, with towpaths on both sides and gas lighting. It was the last canal tunnel built in England. Subsidence from coal mining was a significant problem for much of the life of the canal. The Lapal Tunnel was regularly affected, and a section near Blackbrook Junction fell into mine workings in 1894. The route was restored, but the short Two Locks Line nearby was abandoned in 1909, and the Lapal Tunnel, which has used a pump and stop-locks to create flows to assist the boats in their passage, suffered the same fate in 1917. Most of the canal was abandoned in the 1960s, but a committee was formed, which became the Dudley Canal Trust, and restoration took place, culminating in the reopening of Dudley Tunnel in 1973. Lapal Tunnel remains closed, and although the Lapal Tunnel Trust originally campaigned for it to be reopened, they have modified their plans to include a surface route, following the conclusion of an engineering study. (en)
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