The bridge to carry the Lancaster Canal towpath over the connection basin entrance at the top of the canal arrived on site from the Netherlands on 26 March, but the delivery lorry could not get close enough to the site, and so it was not fitted until 3 April.
June 2002 saw the coffer dam removed from around the rotating sector gate, and also saw the first vessel on the waterway, when a British Waterways maintenance boat passed from the Lancaster Canal into the connection basin above the staircase locks.