Siltbuster equipment helps clear Environment Agency culverts to cut future flood risk

Siltbuster (UK) has supplied four HB50 hopper bottomed units to an Environment Agency project to help clear debris from a large culvert in Gloucester city centre in the UK.

Work has started to remove silt from a 600 metre long culvert where the River Twyver flows underground through parts of the city centre. Much of the silt present in the culvert has accumulated since the 2007 summer floods when high water levels eroded banks, depositing the resulting silt in the watercourse.   The water is being pumped from the underground section of the culvert near Lawrence Way, diverted through four Siltbuster HB50 units where the water is clarifi ed and returned to the watercourse which runs under St Oswald’s Road and past the nearby Persimmons construction works.   OnSite project team leader, Bob Smith, said: “We have a 600 metre length of culvert to clean and survey which is heavily silted and has long sections between manholes. “We have completed several sections and are now cleaning the final section which is being treated and sent to landfill. We are using specialist pumping equipment and four Siltbuster units to remove the silt and gravel to ensure that the culvert will continue to be able to carry the amount of water that needs to flow through it during normal and flood conditions.”   Mr George Tomlin of the Environment Agency concluded: “Keeping culverts clear of blockages is a vital part of our routine maintenance work to keep rivers fl owing freely and reduce any future risk of flooding. “Rivers deposit silt and gravel naturally and, over time, this builds up on the river bed reducing the capacity of the channel. It is also affected by extreme fl ood events, as witnessed in 2007, which have pushed large amounts of debris into the culvert. It can often be difficult to get at the silt and debris to remove it so we need to bring in specialist contractors such as OnSite and Siltbuster to keep it clear.”    The culvert cleaning project is part of a series of works designed to improve the standard of flood protection in Gloucester City centre and is being funded by the Environment Agency.