Thursday 12 November 2009

Dredging. Pumpout, cassette, or ... Portaloo?

Monday 19th October 2009. Just before Ellesmere Tunnel we had to go carefully past contractors dredging the canal.


They seemed to be on a break.


The technique here seemed to be to lay some black polythene sheeting along the towpath and place the dredgings on top. I presume the plastic is merely to enable a low retaining wall to be built in order to stop the mud sliding down the bank.




Not much room for walkers or cyclists here.


On our way back the next day there was more going on. The scoop has just splashed into the canal in the background; an empty hopper is being pushed towards the camera.


Among the collection of work boats was their lavatory. No female workers, then.

2 comments:

Vallypee said...

I suppose dredging has to be done quite regularly on such shallow canals?

Halfie said...

VallyP, I really don't know how often it is done, or how often it should be done, for that matter. I do know that it's possible to cruise for miles (and weeks) without seeing any dredging taking place.

As a footnote to my post, from the timelapse record it appears that the contractors were actually working when we came through: they merely held their boats in to the bank to let us pass.