New banks from above the valley

[Credit: Header image copyright © Tweed Forum 2019 and used with permission.]

As the River Breamish Riverbank Protection project comes to an end, Tweed Forum Project Officer, Joe Taylforth has been on site again to take some more aerial photographs. These clearly show the extent of the work undertaken and how the project has created new riverbanks from old.

New banks from old riverbanks

Since the root wads were delivered and ready to be installed at Site 1 and the logs were sorted at Site 2, work on the Breamish Riverbank Stabilisation and Reinstatement project has continued on track – and now all the heavy work is completed.

The old, eroding riverbanks have been stabilised using so-called soft engineering techniques to reclaim some of the lost land and to protect them from further erosion that was threatening to damage the road.

Backfilling log matrix along the Breamish

After driving in several vertical posts and continuing to line them up along the riverbank, the contractors undertaking the River Breamish Riverbank Protection works have been spending hours backfilling the log matrix.

Line them up along the riverbank

The River Breamish Riverbank Protection works began a few days ago by driving vertical posts into the ground at Site 2.

The team of three contractors have continued to drive more posts into the ground, following the line of the riverbank.

Driving vertical posts into riverbank

Since restoration work began at Site 2 as part of the River Breamish Riverbank Protection, the project to reinstate and protect the River Breamish riverbank from lateral erosion between Brandon and Ingram has continued apace.

Riverbank protection underway at 2nd site

Since the near completion of Site 1 of the River Breamish Riverbank Protection scheme, work is now focusing on the Site 2 (between Site 1 and the Brandon footbridge).

A team from River Tweed Commission have been electro-fishing (or ‘electric fishing’) in front of Site 2 to catch and remove fish. For their protection, they are then replaced in the river downstream and prevented from returning to the work site by simple hay bale ‘fish barriers’.

Site 1 levelled = near completion

After tipping top soil onto the embedded root wads as part of the River Breamish Riverbank Protection scheme, the Haywood Contracting workers have now completed the levelling of Site 1 (completed on Friday 1 November 2019).

It’s now possible to see how much land has been reclaimed and how the soft engineering has recreated the riverbank along its original course.