Land & Water Achieves Huge Milestone at ‘Unlocking the Severn’ Project in Worcestershire

Land & Water Services, alongside its Plant division, has successfully placed a 100t crane on to a 17-piece ravestein pontoon at the ‘Unlocking the Severn’ fish pass construction site at Holt Weir, along the River Severn in Worcestershire, on behalf of its client Kier.

This marks a huge milestone for the leading wet civil engineering firm, as it’s one of the biggest crane and pontoon arrangements achieved in the business.

Working on one of the fish passes, that is part of one of the largest river restorations of its kind ever attempted in Europe, the crane will be used to install a series of Legato Blocks to form the outer part of the fish pass structure, which is essential for the rare migratory fish to travel to their natural spawning grounds.

As a result of the nature of site access, the lifting radius and weight of the lift resulted in the need for an extremely sizeable crane.

Lucy Lee, Contracts Manager at Land & Water, says: “Our works at Holt Weir for the ‘Unlocking the Severn’ project is going extremely well so far and we are proud to have achieved one of our largest crane and pontoon arrangements to date.

“There were a series of temporary works challenges when it came to using this machinery - for example ensuring safe access from the bank to the floating pontoon whilst considering the logistics of working on the River Severn which is known to flood quite quickly.

“However, in working alongside the Plant division we were able to successfully overcome the challenges to continue delivering works.”

Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the European Union LIFE programme, ‘Unlocking the Severn’ will restore connectivity on the UK’s longest river and aims to deliver ambitious heritage, education and science programmes that will reconnect millions of people with the river.

With Land & Water involved in many elements of the project at its Holt fish pass construction site, the leading civil engineers are currently underway with a series of works including the installation of a temporary mass dam, to protect the works during certain flood levels, and the excavation of the main works, fitting soil nails to form the bank edge.

As part of its commitment towards improving the eco-system of the UK’s waterways, Land & Water is proud to be working collaboratively on this project, amongst the different arms of its business, to enhance and enrich the environment.