Work to create an £8.5m ‘fish pass’ that will allow them to swim freely up the River Trent at Colwick is gathering pace.
The structure at Holme Sluices will be the largest of its kind in the country and will serve as an ‘elevator’ to allow fish to hop up and downstream.
The Environment Agency said there were presently a number of barriers to fish migration within the River Trent catchment.
These include the Holme Sluices, a major flood management structure that was built in the 1950s.
The agency says the direct environmental benefits of the fish pass will be £18.6m.
Over the last few months construction workers have been diverting the road and services at the site in Colwick Country Park, and clearing the site ready for the sheet piling, with some now installed along the north section.
A new bridge has also been installed at the entrance to Colwick Country Park to enable the heavy cranes and piling rigs to access the fish pass site.
The project is due to be completed in 2023.
Simon Ward, fisheries technical specialist, said: “Our priority is to open up the River Trent for all fish species.
“By installing fish passage, it will become easier for salmon and other fish to reach their spawning and feeding grounds.”
He said the agency was working with a number of partners on the wider project for the river, known as the Trent Gateway, and other possible plans could include a visitor centre telling the story of the Trent, its history, ecology and how it has shaped communities along its length.
I have no objection to this sort of project but should comon sense not also prevail and use the existin structure to install a walkway that will allow passge to Homles Place.
It’s not as is the new bridge will ever happen…
Best keep out the Pikeys and the like as they’ll soon be whipping out the Salmon first chance they get. Would mind if they took a few of the damned Canadian geese.