The Hoveton Wetlands Restoration project aims to deliver the restoration of Hoveton Great Broad (HGB) and Hudson’s Bay. Salix were appointed by Natural England to complete a major desilting and dredging project
Hoveton Broad sits within Natural England (NE) Blue Marshes National Nature Reserve (NNR) in the Norfolk Broads. The site is one of twenty-seven ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)’ within the Broads and it is Britain’s biggest wetland due to 451 hectares in size. The site is also internationally recognised as Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for its habitat, flora and fauna.
This project is part of the Bure LIFE Project (LIFE14 NAT/UK/000054) which is financially supported by LIFE, a financial instrument of the European Community. It is also supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Hoveton Wetlands Restoration project aims to deliver the restoration of Hoveton Great Broad (HGB) and Hudson’s Bay. Salix were appointed by Natural England to complete a major desilting and dredging project that had been part built by a previous contractor.
The remote location and restricted access required all plant and materials to be mobilised by water along the River and into the Broad. The entire project was undertaken afloat.
Salix were appointed by Natural England to complete a major desilting and dredging project that had been part built by a previous contractor.
The remote location and restricted access required all plant and materials to be mobilised by water along the River and into the Broad. The entire project was undertaken afloat.
This involved the installation of silt filled geotubes and the movement of approximately 11,000m3 of silt backfill into the reedbed areas. Working closely with Netics the Dutch designers the key issue was to move silt from key areas within the broad while maintaining the silts structure. This was achieved by moving the silt along a floating line using a concrete pump so the moisture content and structure of the silt was unchanged.
Following the filling of the geotubes and backfilling the new reedbed areas the geotubes were covered with the firmer sediment from within the Broad.
Reed was then translocated from an adjacent Broad via barge and placed over the geotubes and fenced to protect new growth from wildfowl. The reed translocation is designed to kickstart the reed growth which will overtime migrate naturally across the new beds.
