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The plan involved taking the waterway across two major rivers, and although an aqueduct was built spanning the Lune upstream from Lancaster, there was insufficient capital to finance the considerably greater engineering feat of crossing the Ribble valley. As an interim measure the canal company filled the gap between the truncated ends with a tramway to convey cargoes, but the additional costs and delays associated with double-goods-handling meant that the canal failed to achieve its potential, and then the railway age arrived before it could be completed.

The revival of canals as a leisure resource during the latter half of the 20th century reawakened interest in joining the two halves of the Lancaster Canal, and in 1981 the Lancaster Canal Boat Club put forward a scheme to connect the northern part of the canal to the River Ribble along the course of Savick Brook. As Savick Brook is lower than the canal, locks were needed to enter this section of the waterway, with another lock downstream to retain water at low tide, and it was 20 years before the work was finally completed. Now boats can pass into the Ribble from above Preston, go on up the River Douglas to Tarleton, and join the main Leeds and Liverpool Canal system along the Rufford Branch.