25th February 2020
The job is virtually finished. Note that all the bags are now full.
12th February 2020
Walking down from Brimington Road in Chesterfield, you can see the point where the canal (on the right) leaves the River Rother. On the far bank, AVANT Homes are working, click here. Further ahead you will see a white van.
The aforesaid van belongs to P&D Environmental. This firm has been contracted by Derbyshire County Council, which owns the canal here, to dredge this section of canal. The gate in the background by Tapton Mill Bridge, is a floodgate to stop excess water getting into the canal when the Rother is very high – as happened two weeks ago and especially in November last year. However this tends to trap lots of silt, so it becomes impassable.
This machine is basically a massive vacuum cleaner. It is fixed to a taut line.
The rotor on the front is lowered into the water and stirs up the silt.
This is then pumped into massive bags on the bank.
There are three ports in the top of each bag.
When the bags are full, they hold about 30% silt and 70% water. The water gradually seeps out, but can be encouraged, click here.
By the morning, the bag will be about a third of this size. When they have thoroughly dried out, the bags will be cut open and the silt spread out. It is very rich and very soon greens over.
There are plenty more bags and plenty more pipes because the job will take several weeks. There is a temporary towpath closure along the river as far as the south side of the new houses, click here. Although it says there is no alternative route available, it is simple to walk up to and down Brimington Road to the far side of the new houses, marked as 100 on the closure notice map.