Vlog 287: Muddy Waters
If you’ve ever felt your canal boat scrape on the bottom of the canal and wish more dredging was done by the Canal & River Trust, here’s an explainer of how dredging is done, why it’s so expensive and why they can’t do more of it.
Thank you, David, for yet another informative background story. Keep them coming!
Will do! Thank you.
Two other points:
The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal was dredged near the Bathpool in-line marina, late summer 2020. With an excavator placed on one of the two towpaths, the dredged silt was tipped in a corner of the adjacent field (harvesting of the crop was completed immediately prior to dredging). A 10’ high mound of wet silt (with ramped edges for safety) the size of 6 tennis courts was formed and left for a year by the farmer, perhaps to dry out for easier handling. In early autumn 2021, after 2021’s crop was harvested, the dredged silt was distributed around the field. After a further 12 months and one crop, the dredged waste was completely absorbed into the soil. Isn’t nature wonderful?
The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal is part of CRT’s K&A area, I suspect the waste barges used were the same as those in David’s video. The road transporting of these barges and all the plant are another added cost to these sorts of maintenance work.
Incidentally, much of the silt on the Bridgwater and Taunton canal is soil washed down from Exmoor after heavy rain on the Moor, arriving via the River Tone. The change of water colour evidences this.
Good info, cheers!
Great video David, thank you. You have one big advantage in that the spoil from your canals is agriculturally useful.
Here in Qld, we have saltwater canals in coastal estates and most of the spoil is toxic, making it more difficult (and I imagine more expensive) to dispose of.
Oh, yes that would be tricky, I imagine