Case study:Goshen Weir removal project, River Roch, Bury

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Location: 53° 34' 40.58" N, 2° 17' 12.55" W

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Project overview

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Status	Complete
Project web site
Themes	Fisheries, Flood risk management, Habitat and biodiversity, Hydromorphology
Country	England
Main contact forename	Gary
Main contact surname	Morris
Main contact user ID	User:Gjmorris
Contact organisation	Environment Agency
Contact organisation web site	http://http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/
Partner organisations	River Restoration Centre, APEM Ltd, Irwell Rivers Trust
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects

Before and after removal (Goshan Weir)

Project summary

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Goshan weir on the River Roch in Bury was severely constraining the river corridor and restricting fish passage upstream. The weir removal was the largest attempted at the time, approx 1 km downstream of Gigg lane weir that had previously collapsed.

The weir was carefully removed by Environment Agency operations delivery operatives. Some consultancy pre-app work was undertaken by APEM that included the removal strategy to take out middle 60% and leave in the bankside lengths of the weir. This was to try and centralise the flow and take pressure of the river banks, especially the outer right hand bank.

This is one of the larger weirs that has been removed as part of the Irwell WFD ‘Good ecological potential’ project.

Monitoring surveys and results

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Five monitoring methods
Expert opinion and observation drawing upon in-house geo-morphological expertise
Habitat mapping survey
Fixed point photography survey (manually taken and via time lapse cameras)
Invertebrate surveys (planned, as of May 2014, as easement works are currently being undertaken on Kirklees Brook by Irwell Rivers Trust)
Fisheries survey (planned, as of May 2014, as above)

Lessons learnt

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The results are plain to see. Cumulative benefits.

The video footage shows how the angle of the weir originally directs flow to the inside of the bend. Once removed a more natural flow to the outer bend is established, with large sand and gravel deposits on the inner bend quickly burying the weir remains. The river quickly thins its width at the weir site. This also happened at the Gigg Lane weir site further upstream. One difficulty highlighted by this work is knowing just where to go to collect good data. It became evident that a large amount of erosion occurred at the top of the upper weir, an area that we were not monitoring. By focussing on the events close to our own intervention we saw little of what happened further upstream.

Problems with camera theft for time lapse work. Cameras for the Irwell Rivers Trust considrered disposable and data valued more than equipment.

Image gallery

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Catchment and subcatchment Select a catchment/subcatchment Edit the catchment and subcatchment details (affects all case studies in this subcatchment) Catchment River basin district North West River basin Irwell Subcatchment River name River Roch (Spodden to Irwell) Area category 100 - 1000 km² Area (km2) Maximum altitude category 200 - 500 m Maximum altitude (m) 282282 m <br />0.282 km <br />28,200 cm <br /> Dominant geology Calcareous Ecoregion Great Britain Dominant land cover Suburban Waterbody ID GB112069064600 Site Edit site Name WFD water body codes GB112069064600 WFD (national) typology WFD water body name River Roch (Spodden to Irwell) Pre-project morphology Reference morphology Desired post project morphology Heavily modified water body No National/international site designation Local/regional site designations Protected species present No Invasive species present No Species of interest Dominant hydrology Dominant substrate River corridor land use Average bankfull channel width category Average bankfull channel width (m) Average bankfull channel depth category Average bankfull channel depth (m) Mean discharge category Mean annual discharge (m3/s) Average channel gradient category Average channel gradient Average unit stream power (W/m2) Project background Edit project background Reach length directly affected (m) Project started Works started 2012/09/10 Works completed 2012/09/10 Project completed Total cost category Total cost (k€) Benefit to cost ratio Funding sources Cost for project phases Phase cost category cost exact (k€) Lead organisation Contact forename Contact surname Investigation and design Stakeholder engagement and communication Works and works supervision Post-project management and maintenance Monitoring Reasons for river restoration Edit reasons for restoration Mitigation of a pressure Barriers to fish migration Hydromorphology Continuity for organisms, Continuity of sediment transport Biology Fish Physico-chemical Other reasons for the project Measures Edit Measures Structural measures Bank/bed modifications Weir removal/modification for easement of fish passage Floodplain / River corridor Planform / Channel pattern Other Non-structural measures Management interventions Social measures (incl. engagement) Other Monitoring Hydromorphological quality elements Edit Hydromorphological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Biological quality elements Edit biological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Physico-chemical quality elements Edit Physico-chemical quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Any other monitoring, e.g. social, economic Edit Other responses Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Monitoring documents Upload monitoring documents Goshen weir habitat mapping (2012-2014) Additional documents and videos Upload additional documents Additional links and references Edit links and references Link Description Supplementary Information Edit Supplementary Information