Energy Paper #57 published in 1988 by the Severn Tidal Power
Group is a summary of the 14 years of study of the Severn Barrage funded
jointly by DTI and various private backers at a cost of £65m. EP57 ought to be
available from HMSO. Seeing the back-up reports (where I suspect the info you
are seeking resides) is much more difficult. We tried to see it but were
required to go to Swindon, could only see a few pages at a time, could not make
copies. Quite hush-hush. It stands about 18 inches tall and ought to include
what you are seeking, but I don’t know for sure.
But that was several years ago and the newly-revived STPG may now
be more willing to share its publicly-funded reports. In any event, you should
contact Balfour Beatty or MacAlpine’s (STPG) for access to those studies.
ABPmer have done extensive sediment transport modeling
throughout the Estuary for numerous jobs and they would be a good source
although I don’t know whether thay have worked on that specific scenario.
Concomitant with concerns about sediment transport downstream of
the Severn barrage are concerns about the sewage entrapped upstream and its
impact on the headpond, the requirements to convert the gravity-operated
outfalls to pump-operated and the plan for disposing of it. Could get rather
smelly over time.
Peter
From:
tidal_power_uk@... [mailto:tidal_power_uk@...] On
Behalf Of iantitherington
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 6:19 AM
To: tidal_power_uk@...
Subject: [tidal_power_uk] query on effects of Severn Barrage on sediment
movement
As an Engineer interested in both the potential
of barrage/lagoon
energy production and sediment extraction in the Severn Estuary, could
anyone point me to any published research on the potential effects of
a barrage on sediment movement?
The current extraction of sand off the Gower coast is a sensitive one,
yet no-one appears to have questioned how a Severn Barrage will affect
this. It is recognised that sediment in the estruary moves tidally in
an anti-clockwise pattern up the English coast and down the Welsh
coast. I realise that my description is a little simplistic as it
takes no account of the huge sediment movements resulting from storm
surges, but it would appear to me that a huge tidal wall could at the
very least disrupt sediment movement.
Any help on this would be gratefully accepted.
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