Maintenance updates 2020-2021
Zenith February update
The booms upstream of Zenith Sluice have been installed. When levels allow a similar boom will be installed downstream.
Royal Mills January update
Our work on Royal Mills ceased in December in terms of construction work which necessitated us changing river levels. Since then, we have had a number of days of rain resulting in us having to operate the Lower Mole FAS on numerous occasions since.
Whilst our work at Royal Mills has restored the water levels, unfortunately it has not or at least appeared that it has not returned the weir to full operation. Since the work was completed, we have noticed on several occasions that the weir gate and its fixings shake and rattle in an abnormal way. This is something known as ‘cavitation / issues with nappe’ i.e., a vacuum is now forming when flow goes over the weir gate when it did not previously. This could be something we have done or omitted to do via our works, or there was more damage to the gate whilst one side was unsecured than we were aware.
Our contractor Mackley will be back on site from 1 February to investigate further. This means we will have to lower the river as we did in the previous works. Our teams believe the work will be ongoing for approximately 2 – 3 weeks and potentially longer if we must order materials.
Aldersgrove January Update
We will be replacing the timber clad gates outside of the entrance to our depot at Spa Meadow. Our contractors will be installing new gates as well as a metal swing barrier in front of these gates as an extra security measure. We are expecting the contractors to start work in the week commencing 1 February 2021.
Zenith December Update
Over the past 8 months we have been made aware of increasing numbers of people accessing this weir. In the majority of cases this is by boat, kayak, dinghy or paddleboard, either coming upstream from the Thames or downstream from the River Mole. The evidence we have shows dangerous levels of activity which we, as a responsible asset owner, simply cannot ignore. We will be installing black booms in the New Year and therefore the visual impact will be reduced in comparison to the orange booms we have on our other weirs.
We have seen an increasing number of people fishing in the area immediately downstream of Zenith and Molember weirs. Our Fisheries team plan to increase patrols to check rod licences in this area going forward, particularly during the next close season (15 March to 15 June inclusive).
Downstream of Hampton Court railway line, before the River Mole meets the Thames, there are a few sunken boats and boats moored without permission. Our Thames Waterways are planning on removing the sunken boats using the Thames Tug.
Royal Mills December Works
Our team and our contractors have been on site to investigate what might be causing the reduction in water levels and discovered that Royal Mills Sluice had partially failed, resulting in the drop in water levels held upstream. In October and early November, we commenced work on site to investigate a way forward, during which time you will have noticed changes in the water levels. Since this work was completed the water levels have been nearer ‘normal’ for the last few weeks principally due to higher flows in the Mole from recent rainfall.
We have now sourced the necessary materials to make a temporary repair which will allow the structure to be brought back to near its normal operating conditions while we investigate options for longer term repairs. Works started on Monday 30 November and were completed on 18 December. Once these current repair works to Royal Mills are completed, all of the temporary works will be removed from the river channel, and we expect the upstream levels will be very close to what they were prior to the issues in April.