Recent news release on dredging.
A £500,000 floating ‘vacuum cleaner’ will soon be on the River Thames, removing the sediment from the river bed to make life easier for boaters this summer.
The Versi Dredge, from contractors Land and Water, re-profiles the river by sucking up the soil from shoals formed on the river bed and pumping it up to 1km away to a different location.
Unlike traditional dredging there is no waste product from this operation and therefore more environment friendly. However, this operation will be carefully managed to ensure fish spawning grounds are not disrupted.
Ben Price in Operations Delivery for the Environment Agency said: “The Versi Dredge can do the work of 10 pieces of current equipment.
“It is the only one of its kind in the UK and we are really excited to be able to use it on the River Thames. It is a much quicker method of re-profiling the river bed and with no waste to dispose of it is far more environmentally friendly than traditional methods.
“River bed re-profiling is part of our ongoing maintenance work on the Thames’s navigation channel. Of course the work will be carried out in a way that minimises the impact on fish spawning areas.
“We had planned to carry out this work earlier this year but have been delayed because of the high flows in the river. However, we are hoping this work will only take about two weeks to complete.”
The Versi Dredge will be used at Benson Lock, Osney in Oxford, and in the reach between Pinkhill and Eynsham.
Mark Rowe, Operations Manager for the Upper Thames said: “We have a duty to maintain the river to a certain depth so boaters can safely navigate. Flooding and strong flows make this work challenging so I’m very pleased we are able to deal with shoals that have been a problem for boaters recently.”
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