Editing John Rennie the Elder (section)

==Canals and waterways==
[[File:Dundas Aqueduct, from south-east.jpg|thumb|[[Dundas Aqueduct]]]]
His business expanded into civil engineering, particularly the construction of [[canal]]s. His early projects included the Stowmarket Navigation ([[River Gipping]]) in 1791, the  [[Lancaster Canal]] (started 1792), the [[Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation]] (1793), the [[Crinan Canal]] (1794–1801), [[Rudyard Lake]] (1797) and the [[Rochdale Canal]], which passes through difficult country between [[Rochdale]] and [[Todmorden]] (1799). The [[Kennet and Avon Canal]] – including the [[Dundas Aqueduct]], [[Caen Hill Locks]] and [[Crofton Pumping Station]] – occupied him between 1794 and 1810.

In 1802 he revised the plans for the [[Royal Canal of Ireland]] from [[Dublin]] to the [[River Shannon|Shannon]] near [[Longford]]. He also served as advisor to Dublin Corporation's Pipe Water Committee, for which he was presented with the Freedom of the City of Dublin in 1804.

For many years he was engaged in extensive drainage operations in the Lincolnshire and Norfolk [[The Fens|Fens]] (1802–1810), and in the improvement of the [[River Witham]]. The Eau Brink Cut, a new channel for the [[River Great Ouse|River Ouse]], was completed just before his death.<ref name="Hills">{{cite book|title=Machines, Mills and uncountable costly necessities: a short history of the drainage of the Fens|first=Richard L.|last=Hills|location=Norwich|publisher=Goose & Sons|year=1967}}</ref> He was also chief engineer for the canal and major, but abortive [[lazaret]] at [[Chetney Hill]], on the [[River Medway]] estuary in [[Kent]].<ref name="Booker">{{cite book|title=Maritime Quarantine: The British Experience, c.1650–1900|first=John|last=Booker|location=Abingdon|publisher=Routledge|year=2016}}</ref>