St. James' Park London [click here for further information]
The contract was to drain down a lake within the grounds of the park and remove the silt to an appropriate licenced disposal facility. As the works were being carried out within the park, consideration had to be given to the protection of the environment immediately surrounding the works. The lake was dammed using stong water-proof sheeting supported by a scaffold system. Once an area had been drained down the silt was loaded into skips using a skid steer loader and transported to a loading area. The silt was loaded into sealed tipping vehicles using a 360° excavator.

Longford River
The Longford River runs from the River Colne through Bushy Park to Hampton Court. To dredge the river specialist equipment had to be used, such as floating excavators, larger 20ton 360° excavators down to mini diggers around bridge areas. All this equipment was used in conjunction with barges, tugs and sealed tipping haulage vehicles.

Eltham Palace [click here for further information]
We carried out a contract at Eltham Palace for English Heritage where the moat was not only silted but was losing a high volume of water. Access was impossible for any conventional size equipment.. Half the moat was dammed to retain the water for the livestock and re-use.
The silt was pushed by hand and with the use of a very small mini-digger to a pumping chamber where it was pumped into a small disposal area within the palace grounds for later re-use. We then imported London Blue Clay to re-puddle the whole of the base of the moat to re-seal it. This was done in small sections to avoid the clay drying out too quickly, a new dam was built and the finished area flooded.

Walchetts Lake Camberly [click here for further information]
Surrey Heath Borough Council required Walchetts Lake to be silted. Instead of removing the silt from the site, which is an expensive operation in the UK, we built a new island in the centre of the lake using harder excavated material to create a wall to retain the silt. Silt was also placed around the perimeter of the lake to reinstate the banks that had eroded over the years. Other low lying wooded areas were also filled in.
This operation was carried out with conventional excavation equipment with low ground pressure tracks. The water source, which was live at all times, was over pumped whilst the dredging was carried out.

London Borough of Havering
We regularly clean out outfall pits and sewage works. The bases of these pits are concrete and we use rubber tyred equipment to avoid any damage to the structure.

City of Worcester
Clearance of silt from Ghelvult pond, using diesel driven pumps and a mini-digger, silt was pumped into sealed tipping vehicles and transported by road to a licenced disposal facility.

Barton Broads Norfolk [click here for further information]
The Norfolk Broads are a vast areas of water used mainly for recreational boating. The contract for the Broads Authority was started in 1995 and is due for completion in late 2000.
The dredging was done with suction dredgers and the silt pumped approximately 2½ kilometres via a 200mm dia. pipe into pre-formed lagoons. These lagoons are formed using material from the existing agricultural land. The silt naturally sinks to the bottom of the lagoons, over time, and the water is then piped from lagoon to lagoon, where it naturally self cleanses and is pumped back onto the Broads.
The lagoons are left for approximately nine months, subject to weather conditions, and are then spread over the agricultural land, ready to be re-seeded for it's first crop. In the UK it is permitted to deposit silt on agricultural land without planning permission, provided that it is proved that the quality of the land is ultimately being enhanced.

Richmond Park
A floating excavator was used in this operation where a trench had to be dug alongside an existing wall below the water, to prevent the migration of deer into the adjacent woodland during the summer months.

The River Colne West Drayton [click here for further information]
The river Colne is an extremely fast flowing river. We were asked to dredge 750mm of silt, place into lorries and deposit into pre-formed lagoons. Although there was plenty of water present, suction dredging was prohibited for environmental reasons.
Due to the fact that the silt contained a very heavy ballast material, much larger equipment had to be used and the suspension of silt in the water had to be kept to a minimum. Water testing was carried out on a daily basis as any contamination of the water would have caused major environmental problems further downstream, Filter curtains were constructed across the river with air blankets to prevent contamination occurring.