The new section was filled with water and officially completed on 2 June 2013. An evaluation cruise was held on 10 November 2017, when the maintenance boat "Wookey Hole" carried three assessors from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the chief executive from Stroud District Council and their canal project manager, the Mayor of Stroud, and the Cotswold Canal Trust chief executive and vice-chair. It travelled from The Ocean at Stonebridge eastwards to Bowbridge Lock, with a stop for lunch at Upper Wallbridge Lock. The cruise enabled the HLF assessors to view the work done and to sign off the Phase 1a project, bringing it to a conclusion. An official opening of Wallbridge Lower Lock took place on 2 February 2018, when Prince Charles cut a ribbon to celebrate the reconnection of the Thames and Severn Canal with the Stroudwater Navigation, and unveiled a commemorative plaque. During the execution of the phase 1a project, it became obvious that there would be a shortfall in funding, caused in part by the development of Brimscombe Port being deferred. Thus the Heritage Lottery funded works ended at Bowbridge Lock, and work up to Hope Mill Lock has been undertaken largely by volunteers. Some work to prepare the Brimscombe Port site for development was funded by a £2 million grant from the Homes & Communities Agency given in October 2015. Volunteers completed restoration of Griffin's Mill Lock in 2017, but dredging of the intervening channel took rather longer, and the lock was opened on 9 July 2018. Work had already begun on the restoration of Ham Mill Lock, the next one upstream. In a separate development, water supply to the restored section was improved by building a siphon at Geogh's Orchard Lock, which takes water from a millpond supplied by the River Frome and feeds it into the lock. The pipeline runs over the top of the canal bank, and a solar-powered pump creates a vacuum within the pipe to allow the siphoning to begin. The volume of water taken is regulated by a gate valve, and is governed by an abstraction licence issued by the Environment Agency. The second phase of the Restoration Programme covers the length of the Stroudwater Navigation between the Ocean Railway Bridge, Stonehouse, and Saul Junction on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, a distance of about . The simpler work includes construction of two new locks, restoration of a further six locks, construction of several minor road bridges, and reinstatement of about of in-filled canal. This section poses some significant engineering problems.