More than two centuries ago, the east and west of Scotland were linked by the Forth and Clyde Canal. Later, the Union Canal was built to give a connection to Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital. The two canals met near here, but with a 35m height difference in water levels, a flight of locks was required to connect them. The canals fell into disuse a generation ago. Renewed as one of the British government’s “Millennium Projects”, the link between the canals is now being restored with the Falkirk Wheel replacing a dismantled staircase of 11 locks.

RMJM Architects’ solution to the physical connection, developed from first principles, is the first rotating boat lift ever built and the first boat lift to be built in Britain since the Anderson boat lift in 1895. The Falkirk Wheel is a £74 million investment to link the west and east coasts of Scotland with an inland waterway. It connects the Grand Union Canal and the Forth and Clyde Canal, negotiating a difference in height of 25 meters between the two. It is a functional sculpture which both symbolizes and celebrates the renaissance of the two canals, and what yet may follow.

Completed ahead of schedule in April 2002 and inaugurated in May 2002 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, The Falkirk Wheel honors the bold vision and imagination behind the Millennium Link itself. The prestigious awards including the Brunel Medal 2002 granted by the Institution of Civil Engineers, the UK’s Structural Steel Design Award, Best Practice in Regeneration, an accolade from the British Urban Regeneration Association, and Awards for Planning Achievement granted by the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Although five years of planning and design work went into the initial tender stage for its construction, the Falkirk Wheel’s visually exciting shape and novel conception actually appeared from three weeks of demanding brainstorming sessions involving a 20 expert multi-disciplinary team of engineers and architects soon after the contractor had been commissioned. Participants were been told to attend the meetings with “only a blank piece of paper and clear heads”.

According to RMJM Architects, the organic form of the wheel was inspired from a fish skeleton. The original design concept on which earlier tenders were based was that of a 19^th century style Ferris wheel which, upon closer examination, was discarded. The design is not only simplified in structure, but also more dramatic in appearance and an exceptional example of engineered elegance. British Waterways’ desire for alternatives, while still favouring a wheel of some kind, was taken up and a dramatic solution reached.

It consists of two giant steel arms that revolve around a central hub, and is a fine balance of architecture and engineering. Each arm consists of two steel containers, in which the boats are held during the 15 minutes it takes to complete the half-rotation which transfers a boat from one canal to the other. While in transition, stability gears maintain the horizontally of the containers, which are designed with sets of lock gates, allowing boats can be transferred at a time. The wheel has an actual lift capacity of 35 meters and is equivalent in height to a 9-storey building.

Designed to have durability for over a century, visitors to The Falkirk Wheel enjoy what is described as a unique canal experience. The journey starts with passengers boarding a specially constructed boat at the Visitor Centre before heading out towards the magnificent Wheel itself. The boat then glides effortlessly into one of the water-filled caissons where the doors close to form a watertight seal.

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