Harbour dredging at Watchet to start next week!

[oldmanofthehills]

Of course scouring basins have been used for hundreds of years, and may work at Watchet once a bedrock dredge had been completed. Cost, however would make it impractical. I believe the bedrock dredge followed by a proper maintenance program is the answer. It is Catch 22 now. Don't dredge and there will be no boats, but without boats there is no money for the dredge.

And if they put the stream back to top of harbour it would sort itself out partly. The trouble is that the stream was diverted by the council as part of current set up, and it would cost millions to move it back. And now inner and harbour are split it would be slightly more complex

 

[[176470]]

The outer harbour at half tide this morning. Spot the dredged area!

 

[Graham_Wright]

Looks a tad choppy out there this morning!

 

[[176470]]

The contract of 18 tides at Watchet outer harbour has now been completed. CMS Innovation will shortly depart for her next job. Here with a couple of final images for interest.

 

[38mess]

The contract of 18 tides at Watchet outer harbour has now been completed. CMS Innovation will shortly depart for her next job. Here with a couple of final images for interest.

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Great job. Out of interest does CMS innovation sail back to Cardiff or is she trucked?

 

[[176470]]

Her next job is in Bristol so she will steam. Both CMS Innovation and CMS Seaka can be transported by truck which offers a huge advantage as mobilisation costs and time are signfciantly reduced.

 

[pessimist]

Out of curiosity we wandered down to Watchet this morning and were lucky enough to see the dredger operating. In a chat with the assistant harbour master we learnt that the dredging is part of a general regeneration of Watchet. Apparently self catering pods, cafes and an art gallery are scheduled for the harbour area.
It was fascinating to learn how quiet the dredger is and how little disturbance of the water is evident. The only real clue as to what is happening is the niff released by the disturbed mud of ages. Glad I'm not working on board!
There is a short video of the dredger operating here . It demonstrates how non intrusive the operation is. For those on limited bandwidth be aware that it is 60 odd meg.
A photo of the craft working follows.

 

[PCUK]

Nice vid', hard to believe it was doing anything. I think I'll get one of those, nice way to make a few bob!
Onion Collective are running the development project which does seem pretty good instead of the usual abominations ruining so many marinas. If only the marina was dredged it would be a real draw for boat owners to the town. Considering the entire Quay development cost only 7.3 million including many new jobs being created the cost of a marina dredge seems very light.

 

[JumbleDuck]

The stream like all Exmoor run-off streams is very variable in rate. I like the idea of a dam to trap a goodly amount of water then to use the flow through pipes to flush out mud ...

That's how several SW Scottish harbours were kept clean: Kingholm (Dumfries), Whithorn and Palnackie all dammed streams, let the water pile up and then blasted it through at low tide. Similar to the Bristol channel - lots of mud and big tidal ranges giving a good fast outflow when needed.

 

[muppetdodger1]

Nice vid', hard to believe it was doing anything. I think I'll get one of those, nice way to make a few bob!
Onion Collective are running the development project which does seem pretty good instead of the usual abominations ruining so many marinas. If only the marina was dredged it would be a real draw for boat owners to the town. Considering the entire Quay development cost only 7.3 million including many new jobs being created the cost of a marina dredge seems very light.

Of course there is no point in dredging the harbour until some one mends the retaining gates which have been broken for years. Whole thing has been a massive waste really. When it all worked it was a massive boost to the town, but now it's just embarrassing.

 

[NotBirdseye]

You mean the Marina right?

I think there's going to be a chicken and egg situation, but the dredging will have to come first even if only to make it easier to repair the retaining gates.

 

[ribdriver]

There is only one gate (a tidal sill flap gate), it was working fine the other day. However I believe that the marina operators may be holding it open as there is so much mud in there, it allows better access, and little point in retaining water that isn't there.
(Don't quote me, just what I have seen).

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Of course there is no point in dredging the harbour until some one mends the retaining gates which have been broken for years. Whole thing has been a massive waste really. When it all worked it was a massive boost to the town, but now it's just embarrassing.

What broke was the indication and control system, such that the sill could be raised when it should be down but the green exit/entry light showed it as lowered. I have seen a boat ram the raised sill thinking the exit was clear. As far as I know that has been long fixed