Background Information
The Boveney Ditch is formed by the merging of Roundmoor Ditch and habitual dried up Cress Brook just west of Eton Wick. In 1963 Slough Council were granted consent to insert a sewage outlet pipe from the water treatment works at Slough into the Roundmoor Ditch.
In the 1990s when the Jubilee River opened, the natural water element of the Roundmoor Ditch was cut off from Eton Wick. A pipe that runs under the Jubilee now maintains the flow into the Roundmoor and Boveney Ditch.
Scope of the Project
The area is an important, accessible open space, valued for both wildlife and recreation: walking, fishing and bird watching. The Boveney Ditch is recognised as a key-spawning habitat for coarse fish from the River Thames. The works involved introducing gravels to improve the substrate of the river for gravel spawning coarse fish species such as Barbel.
Our Solution
We introduced100 tonnes of 40mm – 60mm gravel reject stone into the channel over four different sites. At the confluence of the channel where it meets the Thames, flow deflectors were positioned to create cover for traversing fish moving into the channel.
Gravels were positioned over natural features in the river bed to construct pool and riffle habitat suitable for spawning and migrating fish. Following on from this project, the Environment Agency has repopulated the river by stocking it with Barbel and Chub.
