Work has continued at Catrine Dam and I visited on the way home last night to see for myself. The mortar is nearly complete on the dam back and by this evening two of the three remaining bays will have been poured. The final section will be completed on Friday this week.

The rock armour may still need some concrete to seal the top edge and prevent fish becoming trapped.

Following this, the crest of the weir is to be poured and capped with a steel performed crest and I believe this is causing some problems for the fabricators/blacksmiths. When this will be complete is guess work at the moment so I won’t make any predictions.

The reinforcement placed at the crest of the weir prior to concreting and capping.

The fish pass still has standing waves that require to be sorted and I’ve yet to hear how this will be achieved. I remain hopeful that a satisfactory solution for the fish will be found that doesn’t increase the risk of poaching. Time will tell but we and the Board will keep pushing our thoughts on this matter. More information of what is to be implemented as I get it.

A temporary baffle set up that is an attempt to reduce the effect of the standing wave. This isn’t ideal and I’ll be pushing for a more satisfactory arrangement.

Apart from the end wall of the fish pass being problematic, I noticed a significant build up of sediments downstream of the weir. This was a deep pool (>1m) prior to the works however I suspect there will soon be a gravel bar breaking the surface. This may be a result of sediment moving upstream of the weir due to the landslides, but I also suspect some scour immediately downstream of the rock armour and weir is taking place.

The red arrow indicates where sediment is building up rapidly.