Maintenance Operations.
Completed Maintenance Works
Well Creek – (Phase VII Nordelph Village to Mullicourt Aqueduct, Outwell)
The Commissioners have recently completed the seventh phase of channel maintenance desilting works to remove siltation and sediment from Well Creek, during March 2022.
Where suitable bankside disposal was available, dredged material has been placed on the bankside and will be left to dry sufficiently during the warmer spring and early summer months to a point where it can be re-handled and spread on adjacent arable fields following this year’s harvest.
Where bankside disposal was not available, the dredging’s have been transported from site and taken to a nearby field owned by the Commissioners at Salters Lode, where it will be left to dry out before being re-used as bank raising material throughout the Middle Level system.
Swavesey IDB/MLC/EA Public Sector Co-operation Agreement (PSCA) Works
Following the successful completion of similar work undertaken in the 2019 season to watercourses under the control of the EA in the Swavesey area, Swavesey IDB in conjunction with the Middle Level Commissioners were tasked with providing a similar fully costed and re-chargeable service to the EA again for the 2020 season under a PSCA contract.
This season’s watercourse maintenance works consisted of several elements including flail mowing of watercourse banks and adjacent berms, bush trimming, herbicide application to control emergent aquatic vegetation, and machine and hand cleansing with a weed bucket/ hand tools to remove excessive vegetation from the watercourses concerned. Vermin monitoring and control has also been included in this year’s works programme.
Great Raveley Drain – (Speed the Plough Junction – MLC Control Sluice)
Maintenance desilting works were undertaken in January and February 2019 to remove accumulations of silt from the Great Raveley Drain. It was necessary for our Contractor’s 18 metre long reach machine to work from both sides of the watercourse, where bankside access was afforded in order to gain the necessary ‘reach’ to desilt the centre of the channel. Dredgings have been placed along the bank top and allowed to dry out. Once dried, the material will be shaped and levelled into the existing raised embankment. The desilting operation not only removes the silt from the water channel to assist with water conveyance during high rainfall events, it also helps to provide locally sourced material with which to strengthen and raise the bank crest, helping us to protect land and property from flooding in the future.
This short video is desilting work carried out on the Great Raveley Drain during 2019.