Understanding The Process And Benefits Of Dredging Operations
Posted on: 1 April 2021
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There is a lot of positive and negative discussion around the idea of lake dredging or water dredging that is often confusing. Dredging is used in very specific ways, and when it is done right, it can have some very beneficial effects on the waterway being dredged.
Understanding Dredging
It is crucial to understand how dredging works and what its purpose is. Water dredging removes silt and sediment from the bottom of a waterway to restore the depth of the channel or trench, not increase it.
In most situations, the silt is deposited in the waterway after being eroded from somewhere else. The material will begin to reduce the water depth as the silt builds up in the channel, river, creek, or lake bottom. A dredge will pass over the area with a long broom with a tool that loosens the material on the bottom of the channel.
The dredge will then pump up the loose material and deposit it onto a barge to be hauled away and used as fill somewhere it is needed. The material removed from the channel is not randomly dumped somewhere but is often stored to be used later or sold as fill dirt.
Dredging Depth
When a water dredging project is started, some critical guidelines go with it. The depth of the dredging is typically limited to the original depth of the waterway so that nothing is removed except the silt that did not belong there in the first place. Engineers take measurements of the channel and compare them to previous depths in the channel, then map out where the dredge needs to remove material to restore it to the correct depth.
Water dredging is often used to restore a channel used for shipping or boat traffic, but in most situations, it is not intended to remove materials to make the channel deeper. In many cases, the channel is used for shipping or trade, and access through it is vital, so dredges are used to maintain the passage and ensure that the boat traffic can still use the channel.
Maintenance Dredging
Some waterways are constantly filling with silt and are vital shipping or traffic lanes that need maintaining all the time. Some of the water dredging projects on these waterways are ongoing and will continue to be because it is the only way to keep these channels open.
In coastal areas with a lot of tide activity, dredging is often the only way to maintain the area and keep the silt under control. Some of these water dredging operations constantly run to ensure ships' safety in the area and maintain the ecosystem that would be destroyed if the silt was allowed to overrun the channel.