The Middle Level dredging project gathers momentum

The Middle Level Commissioners have just announced that the major scheme to improve flood banks across the Middle Level will gather pace over the coming months.

As reported, the Commissioners have started with a programme of dredging and using the material gathered to reform the banks.

To complete the works, the contractors will use long reach excavators as they are more able to reach out into the water channels and efficiently remove silt to a uniformed pre-determined bed level.

Maintenance dredging forms an important part of the Commissioners’ channel maintenance works. It is critical to the efficient operation of the artificially pumped and gravity systems to dredge silt deposits from channel beds as, over time, watercourses’ and drainage channels’ silt deposits naturally build up as they are carried into them by water flows.

They periodically undertake channel bed surveys of their watercourses. The survey information is plotted and used to help prioritise and programme where future maintenance dredging works are required.

Most of the dredging work is pre-planned and undertaken during the colder winter months. This helps to reduce the impact on local wildlife habitat, ecology and navigation traffic.