Bank Restoration
The banks of rivers and streams once eroded to a sheer face, start a cycle of severe erosion where the substrate, exposed to moving water, is undermined. This causes the bank to collapse into the stream leaving another, usually higher shear face of substrate. Meanwhile the debris that has fallen into the river, is washed downstream as silt and discolouration. With innovative bank re-profiling techniques and stone ground retaining walls DMS can effectively halt this type of erosive cycle.
Bank Reinforcements
Where paths, tracks or livestock converge with watercourses, it is often the case that there can be issues of poaching on the banking and the surrounding ground. This causes the river bank to be not much more than silt and mud that is in constant flux, which increases particulate carried in the water and can cause water discolouration.
DMS can solve these issues by designing and building features that reinforce that banking and provide a clean hard surface for vehicle, people and stock traffic who come into contact with the watercourse. Features such as fords, stepping stones, stone edges, bridges, and splash plates, can be combined with stone hard areas to ensure that passage through the stream and the approaches do not give rise to silt generation.
Bank Paths
Traditionally many footpaths follow watercourses, which although pleasing for the footpath users, does create some unique problems for the owners and managers of land through which the path and streams pass. These paths often traverse the slope of the bank causing erosion and pitting in the path surface as well as exposing tree roots which make the path more hazardous. In addition low level bank erosion by the water combined with foot traffic on the path can cause sections of the banking to collapse. Where the path crosses an inlet into the stream, the ground can become poached and stripped of vegetation.
DMS have a thorough understanding of these issues and of the solutions, and are knowledgeable about restoration techniques and the use of machines in such difficult environments. With sympathetic use of stone bank retaining walls, piped bridges, handrails, pitched stone water receivers, and stone path surface, DMS can restore and stabilise bank paths so that they are stable, safe and accessible, thus allowing previously poached ground to regenerate.
