Slow progress is being made on the Kilmarnock Water at the Black Rocks waterfalls. The aim is to ease fish passage over the Black Rocks and the concrete slab by creating 2 weir pools below the falls which should provide adequate depth for fish to avoid the poachers and negotiate the obstacle. Wet weather has hampered the works so far but we hope that given good weather, a couple more weeks should see the job virtually complete. The contractor knows he will have to pull out all the stops to complete this before winter sets in bringing the inevitable floods that will make work impossible.
The contractor aimed to pour concrete in one of the two lower take off pools today but couldn’t due to water upwelling from below the existing slab. We came up with an alternative plan that involved stemming the flow with concrete filled sand bags. Next monday (weather permitting), the walls will be poured onto the bed rock and the first take off pool will be complete. The fish passes in the weir will each be 1m wide. By tuesday the second pool should be complete and the work on the weirs will commence. The second photo below shows the stainless steel dowels bonded to the concrete slab that will tie the weir to the base.
Stemming the flow of upwelling water with concrete filled sand bags.
