Works to remove the only weir on the Alt are scheduled in September 2026. This will have a significant positive impact on wildlife, such as migratory eels, and increase safety around waterways and reduce risks to the community.
Key benefits:
🐟 Restoring Migration: Allowing fish and eels to move freely into the upper river reaches.
🫧 Habitat Recovery: Replaces a hard concrete barrier with a natural, flowing channel that benefits a multitude of wildlife.
🏊 Community Safety: Increase safety around waterways and reduce risks caused by open water swimming in the dangerous turbulence of the weir pool.
Riffles will be implemented downstream of the weir, providing benefits to habitat, river dynamics and oxygenation.
Impact on fish will be low, with turbidity thresholds during the work ranging from 0 to 25 NTU, with a few short spikes likely. These will be mitigated by a slow, steady removal of the weir, chipping away at one end and allowing the water to clear every so often before continuing. This weir removal follows an approach used in several highly successful River Irwell weir removals by the EA, where all fish kill was avoided, despite it being a highly sensitive salmonid watercourse.
If you wish to get in touch regarding the works, project leads (Environment Agency and Mersey Rivers Trust) will be available on-site, or please email info@merseyrivers.org.
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