A programme of winter works on the river Great Ouse continues apace, despite heavy rains halting work for more than six weeks.
Although more than 40 days of high flows have made work on the river more difficult, teams have still managed to drain down and inspect Eaton Socon lock ahead of a refurbishment scheme later this year and renovate 115 metres of visitor moorings on the riverside at Ely.
Around £40,000 has been spent upgrading the mooring, which stood on crumbling piling and had become run down. In order to bring the mooring up to standard, the piling was repaired and strengthened and a new timber capping put over the top. This capping was then covered with a fibreglass non-slip covering to make it safer, and new mooring posts were installed. The final stage saw the site landscaped and seeded.
Improved anti-drifting devices have also been installed on the mitred lock gates at Offord. A ‘prototype’ was introduced at Offord before last year’s boating season and due to the success of the device, and good feedback from boaters, the modified version will now be fitted to other lock sites on the system.
Brownshill Lock, between Earith and Holywell, was closed for ten days in February to install a new power supply and allow new actuators to be fitted. The new power supply will make the lock operation more reliable and the new actuators will make the lock operation much quicker – as the old drive units were reaching the end of their useful life.
Nathan Arnold Great Ouse team leader commented: ‘We have managed to achieve much of our winter works programme in spite of some terrible weather conditions. And before the new boating season begins we hope to drain down and inspect Brampton lock, undertake brickwork repairs to St Ives lock and the most pleasing scheme of all is providing power to Godmanchester lock before Easter. This scheme also includes installing a CCTV camera system at the lock which will be monitored by the local council in a joint partnership arrangement between the two parties’.
Between October and January the Great Ouse has been put on Strong Stream Advice for 30 days, with the Environment Agency sending out warnings by telephone to all boaters registered with the SSA service. Strong Stream Advice is issued when locks are used to discharge floodwater on the river and headroom for bridges and other structures is restricted. For this reason we strongly advise against navigating on the rivers during these conditions.
