Sustainable solutions to soil and riverbank erosion, river restoration and flood management
Our work covers these different areas:
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We are able to combine both soft and hard engineering techniques to offer value engineered solutions in both wet and ecologically sensitive environments.
As our climate changes there is a greater need for solutions like ours, solutions that build resilience into our landscapes whilst creating high levels of biodiversity.
Here you can view our range of previous projects and filter them by different terms:
AquaRockBags for scour problems
The objective of the project was to fill the scour hole & to provide an extension to the existing spillway that prevents scouring downstream
AquaRock Bags used in Erosion Protection
As a result of substantial rain fall in the Sacramento area , severe flooding ensued, leading to significant erosion challenges along Auburn Ravine.
AquaRock Bags used as a Working Platform
A working platform was needed along the banks of the Saluda River in Columbia, SC to allow heavy equipment to be placed on it. This was needed for construction,…
Habitat Creation at Padnall Lake, a SuDS Solution
SuDS project creates new habitat for wildlife
Erosion Protection on the River Leith, Thrimby, Network Rail
Network Rail had identified an erosion and scour risk at the toe and embankment of one of their assets on the River Leith, near Thrimby, Cumbria.
Restoring Saltmarsh Habitats to Prevent Erosion
Salix’s natural bioengineering solutions, native plants & brushwood fascines, are used to prevent further erosion at West Thurrock
Improving Wetland Habitat at Goodwick Moor, Fishguard
Increasing wetland habitat on a Wildlife Trust nature reserve in Pembrokeshire, opening up a pond and creating an island with soil from the pond
AquaRockBags for Emergency and Temporary Work
Following a storm event in February 2022, a 20-metre section of flood wall in the Derbyshire town of Matlock collapsed. Jackson Civil Engineering, a specialist…
Using Carbon Neutral Wetland Habitat to Prevent Erosion in Iport Doncaster
Wetlands were excavated as part of a large, new retail development near Doncaster. Once excavated, the embankments suffered from significant erosion due to sand…
Low Carbon Solution to Waste Water Management
Salix grew tens of thousands of native wetland plants for a Integrated Constructed Wetland (ICW) to treat wastewater as part of a Yorkshire Water Wastewater Tre…
River Stour Embankment Restoration
Soft engineering solutions presented by Salix, such as Coir Rolls, Rock Rolls and shear stress turf, represent a major cost saving over traditional hard revetme…
River Towy, Bank Erosion, Carmarthen
Aqua Rock Bags were installed at the eroded toe of the failing riverbank after it had eroded the bank and caused the footpath to collapse into the River Towy in…
River Elwy, Pipeline Protection, North Wales
A live crib wall of willow were used to protect a high pressure gas pipe that had become exposed due to significant river bed scour and bank erosion on a sectio…
Re-naturalisation of the Broadwater Brook
Salix worked with the Sompting Estate, and the Ouse and Adur River Trust to re-naturalise a watercourse, constructing a kilometre of new channel for the Broadwa…
Erosion protection on the River Gripping
Salix supplied AquaRock Bags to provide an environmentally sensitive solution yet robust solution to protect the toe of the embankment from further slips and li…
Restoring the River Beane, a Chalk Stream
Salix enabled the restoration of wetlands and chalk stream habitat whilst bypassing a weir which was a listed heritage feature
Restoring the River Mimram, Tewin
Salix were commissioned to restore part of the river Mimram whilst protecting the local population of water voles and increasing the biodiversity
Re-naturalising River Nairn
Salix worked on the River Nairn in an award winning project to renaturalise the river, allowing it to meander again and restoring river processes.
River Quaggy: Lewisham
Salix provided Coir Rolls and Coir Pallets to provide instant vegetation and habitat on the deculverted River Quaggy.
Hoveton Broad, Wetlands Restoration
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…
Coastal Road Protection
2T AquaRockBag® are used as a temporary measure to support the road and prevent scour during winter
Scour Prevented by AquaRockBags
AquaRockBags® were installed by the local council highways team to prevent a road subsiding due to scour and erosion caused by the adjacent watercourse.
Yearl Weir
As an ecologically sensitive site the use of traditional hard engineered bank protection was not an option and Salix’s bioengineered designs were favoured.
High Energy Inter Tidal Solution on the River Exe
Salix’s Ready-filled Rock Mattresses provided a solution to flood protection works needed on the River Exe. This quick and cheap approach provided a stable, nat…
Reservoir Dogs – Shoreline protection
Salix were brought in to help with a sensitive erosion problem on a reservoir shoreline in North London. Ecologically sensitive solutions were used which will c…
Our Rock Products are the (Jack’s) Key to Preventing Erosion
Jack’s Keys needed a rapid response to scour and erosion problems. Our pre-filled Rock Mattresses and Rock Rolls were the answer, our Menzi Muck Spider machine…
Intertidal Planting Solution on River Thames
Creating a reed bed on an intertidal part of the Thames river is challenging – but Salix achieved a fantastic result as a consequence of their unique design app…
Flooding and erosion prevention in Sheffield
When a flashy stream was unearthed in Sheffield Salix were brought in as specialist experts in erosion management by the Wild Trout Trust. The Porter Brook was…
Erosion Management on Railway Embankment
Salix were brought in as specialist experts in erosion management at an embankment in Rodbourne.
Protecting a Pipeline in Carmarthen
We installed erosion protection products like our Coir Rolls and Rock Rolls at this site where a pipeline was exposed in the river bed
Erosion Control at Laurel Farm, a Network Rail Site
Scour protection provided by Rock Mattresses at a Network Rail site where the river had undercut the river bank, endangering the embankment above.
Salix Erosion Products Used in Flood Protection Repair Works
Salix’s erosion management products used in works to repair flood defences. Rock Rolls, Coir Rolls, native wetland plants and VMax C350 were all essential ingre…
River Bank Erosion Management at Wisley Golf Course
Extreme river bank erosion rectified by regrading the river bank and using Coir Rolls and Coir Pallets, preventing erosion naturally
Erosion Control at SuDS project
Rock Rolls and Rock Mattresses are both easy to put into place, prevent erosion and can withstand high flows whilst allowing for the natural establishment of pl…
Naturalising a Stream at Bedlinog
Constant flooding and erosion had been causing some serious problems for Merthyr Tydfil Council who manage an old reclaimed tip site, close to the village of Be…
Flood Alleviation at Tregaron
The aim of the project was to protect around 100 houses and businesses that had been subjected to increased flood threats. Constant flooding was a problem with…
River Washford Roadwater Erosion Protection
The increasing frequency of flood events on the River Washford required the existing system to be replaced and improved.
River Washburn Restoration
Salix were approached as river restoration experts and because of the innovative Menzi Muck Spider machine which is capable of climbing in and out of a river ca…
Silent Valley Erosion Control
HydraCX™ was applied to 125,000m2 of poor, erosion prone soil at a large landfill site in Ebbw Vale, South Wales. HydraCX is a hydraulically applied eros…
Cwmparc River Restoration
Salix worked with Natural Resources Wales at Cwmparc in the Rhondda Valley to renaturalise the water courses in order to reduce flood risk and increase biodiver…
River Dulais, Rhosmaen Llandeilo
Salix’s River Dulais project demonstrating the use of large woody debris (LWD) is now ten years old and has been is included in the manual of River Restoration…
Green Swales on Roadside
Soft engineered ‘Green Swale Grass Channel’ attenuates road run-off water, filters suspended solids, and traps hydro carbons and heavy metals, significantly imp…
Woodberry Wetlands
Desilting a large reservoir in the heart of London and creating a new wetland habitat. Dredging silts enabled us to create 13,000 square metres of new reed bed
Erosion Control on Loch Garry Spillway
Erosion control using Tensar VMax P550 on Loch Garry spillway and embankments
Restoring East Tullos Burn
East Tullos Burn project transformed a waterway from a straight, hard-engineered channel, into a natural stream, functional floodplain and wetland habitat.
Naturalising Norfolk’s Chalk Rivers
Salix has helped the Norfolk Rivers Trust to improve wildlife habitats on the chalk River Babingley, Hillington Estate near Flitcham, and River Nar at Pentney,…
Sandwich Flood Alleviation and Spillway Scheme
The £21.7 million flood defence scheme involved works on 16 individual reaches of the river and it reduced the risk of tidal flooding to 488 homes and 94 commer…
Scour Protection at Lhanbryde Spillway
Following the 2005 £2million Lhanbryde Flood Alleviation Scheme, near Elgin in Moray, in Summer 2014, Salix worked with Royal HaskoningDHV engineers to improve…
Darwen Bank Stabilisation
A 120 metre reach of river had been subject to ongoing bank instability issues. A gas pipeline set in the bank was dangerously close to being exposed and bank r…
River Rhiw Bank Protection
Salix were awarded the contract and began works to carry out 300 metres of riverbank protection to protect this existing exposed high pressure gas pipe in March…
Olympic Park Wetlands
Salix were involved in making the Olympic Park a reality, when we were awarded the prestigious Tier 2 Contract in 2009 to grow all the wetland and wet wildflowe…
M25 Road Widening
Salix were tasked with greening up a 45 degree slope consisting of 6F2 fill. The initial design was a covering of 150mm of topsoil over an area of about 8,000m2…
Kingsbury Tamworth Rail Line
Salix applied HydraCX in September 2009 to slopes consisting of 6I/J fill material with no imported topsoil covering the surface. The project was monitored each…
Wilderness Lake
The Wilderness Lake is an important coarse fishery and recreational resource on the edge of Porthcawl in South Wales. It also functions as a flood storage area…
Gloucester Business Park
A new warehouse complex required a large balancing pond to take surface runoff water. The pond had steep sides which required some form of ground stabilisation.
Cwmbran Boating Lake
The boating lake was a popular local attraction and fishing lake. The lake edges were in bad repair with little or no marginal vegetation. Floating islands were…
Longham Lakes
Working for Bournemouth & West Hants Water, Salix were appointed as Main Contractor to undertake 2km of bioengineering works to stabilise the shoreline of a new…
Ramsden Bellhouse
A series of potentially dangerous deep seated failures on a railway embankment required treatment to prevent further slips. The geotechnical issues of ground st…
Chipping Campden Rail
HydraCX was sprayed onto 5,500m2 of re graded rail embankments to prevent erosion and establish vegetation rapidly without importing expensive topsoil. HydraCX…
Foss Dyke Bank Stabilisation
A rise in pleasure boating on the Foss resulted in severe boat wash. Monitoring revealed that the rate of bank erosion was up to 2.5 metres in a year over a 2km…
Pewsey Rail Embankment
A rail embankment had slipped and was reinstated with soil nails providing geotechnical stability. Birse created working platforms with imported stone and then…
Afon Gwydol Embankment
Works were required to repair an eroding railway embankment adjacent to the river. This resulted in the embankment encroaching into the river, causing erosion p…
Papworth Reedbeds
After a competitive bid process, Salix designed and built a tertiary treatment reedbed for Anglian Water at their Papworth STW. Salix partnered with Pete Worral…
Salwarpe Reedbed
As part of a new large reedbed creation project Salix contract grew and planted out 125,000 reed plants grown from local provenance seed stock. Seed was hand co…
Twycross Zoo Wetlands
As Principle contractor, Salix constructed a 3 hectare wetland system to provide waste water treatment and habitat creation. 18 integrated ponds, wet grassland,…
Pembroke Commons
1 km of new and existing channel was enhanced using bioengineering techniques as part of a flood protection project in the centre of historic Pembroke in West W…
River Pinn Enhancement
Salix designed and constructed a stream enhancement project at a gas pipeline river crossing as ecological mitigation to a degraded reach of stream as part of a…
River Thaw Enhancement
Salix were asked by Environment Agency Wales to advise on methods to restore a 100 metre reach of the River Thaw which had been subject to physical degradation…
Conwy Flood Alleviation and Spillway Scheme
Salix supplied 9000m2 of VMax3 Shear stress turf in September 2009. Just 2 months later the area experienced the worst flooding in 25 years of recording with fl…
River Ebbw Bank Stabilisation
Salix worked with consulting geotechnical engineers to provide design and build proposals to stabilise over 800 metres of steep riverbank composed of highly ero…
River Gwenfro
A private developer had back gardens adjacent to a river that when in flood created severe scour issues. Initial river modelling indicated flow velocities in ex…
River Pipeline Crossing
Salix were invited to submit a bioengineering solution to solve an erosion issue at a pipeline crossing in West Wales. The solution used a combination of locall…
River Roding Bank Protection
Salix advised engineers Halcrow on bioengineering methods to stabilise a regraded slope as part of an inter-tidal river enhancement project. The existing vertic…
River Roding Enhancement
The River Roding is an inter-tidal river and these works were undertaken 100m upstream of the Barking Barrier, Greater London. The works were part of an Environ…
Dan Y Lan Landfill Slip
The finished slope was 36 degrees, 40 metres in height and 60m wide. 250mm depth of topsoil was required, rather than the nominal 50-75mm, as cover for marginal…
Calverton Tip Drainage
Colliery shale and sandy soils have one thing in common; both are highly susceptible to erosion by flowing water. Both soil types were present on site.
Waverley Colliery Reclamation
A large drainage channel designed to take flows of up to 3m/sec was created to take runoff water from a 741 acre site at Waverley, one of Europe’s biggest colli…
Locke Park Lake
Locke Park Lake had become silted to the point that it could no longer be safely used for boating. Salix were employed as main contractor to de-silt the lake…
Beacon Park
Salix were employed by main contractor Casey to undertake the restoration work to Beacon Pool for Lichfield Council on this Heritage lottery funded project.
Kelham Island Goit
Salix were contracted by Mansell construction to dredge the contaminated Goit forming Kelham Island and working closely with ecologists ECUS to create marginal…
Water Vole Habitat Works
Salix successfully tendered for a pilot project to improve marginal vegetation along the River Wandle. The project formed part of a wider scheme to reintroduce…
Upper Lake, Perton
A two hectare area of open water had extensive embankment erosion due to massive populations of Canada Geese which created public health & safety issues.
Grand Union Canal
The project aim was to restore a wetland area on the banks of the Grand Union Canal for the benefit of wildlife and the fishery. The scheme design ensured that…
Treboeth Cobble Channel
A new development had slope stability issues due to an adjacent cobble bed watercourse badly eroding the soils and downcutting the bed within the channel.
Soham Lode Re-visited
An important water vole site at Soham Lode required emergency re-lining of the perched section of the reach (approximately 600m) Following the emergency works,…
Water Vole Habitat Mitigation
Medmerry is one of the stretches of coastline most at risk of flooding in southern England. The overall scheme involves building major new sea defences inland a…
River Tywi
Salix were awarded a design and build contract to prevent further erosion of a section of the riverbank and reinstate a scour hole threatening a high pressure g…
Worden Park Leyland
Following works within Worden Park to remove a culverted section of Cricket Field Brook that was the cause of flooding to neighbouring residential properties, a…
Railway Lane, Lewes
The integrity of the existing blockwork facing was deteriorating as a result of the tidal inundation and draw-down cycles together with areas of groundwater see…
River Teme Restoration
The River Teme is a sensitive SSSI and SAC river and over 150 metres of severe bank erosion was threatening a National Grid pipeline.
We offer low carbon solutions that help wildlife, many of our approaches build habitat creation in, enabling high levels of biodiversity using nature based solutions.
The approaches we take can help reduce flooding, increase wildlife, and reduce pollution.
We are always seeking to improve our products, and we always look for the most sustainable and socially responsible approach.
