Work to close a breach on the Caledonian Canal caused by extreme weather earlier this month will start on Monday.
The banks of the waterway were badly damaged near Fort Augustus during exceptionally heavy rain and snow-melt last week.
A cruise company has had to cancel Easter holiday trips because of the problems, which cause water from Loch Oich to flow into the canal and cause flooding at Loch Ness.
Scottish Canals, which maintains the historic canal, said yesterday a temporary dam at Aberchalder Bridge has been completed and now there are plans to close the breach by installing sheet piling.
But they claim that the project is on schedule to allow the canal to reopen on a delayed date of April 30.
A spokesman for Scottish Canals said: “We are pleased to be able to report that the temporary dam at Aberchalder Bridge was completed yesterday and we now have the results of the test bore holes which were carried out over the weekend.
“These confirm that we are clear to proceed with our preferred solution of closing the breach by sheet piling which we hope to commence by Monday March 23. Works to consolidate the remaining section of the weir and create access for piling plant are also well underway.
“We are also pleased to report that we are a few days ahead of the indicative schedule we gave last week but it is important to note that we still have some challenging key stages to deliver.
“However, last week we indicated our hopes of reopening the canal to navigation on April 30 and we can now confirm that we are now confident of achieving this timescale.
“If the sheet piling works are underway by the middle of next week as planned, then that will be the next appropriate opportunity to issue a further progress report with estimated timelines.”