Plough Maintenance Dredging Operations

Some plough dredging is undertaken generally in tandem with other maintenance dredging techniques, but also as a stand alone technique.

Ploughing utilises a tug vessel equipped with a plough unit (a steel box suspended on cables/chains). The plough is lowered to predetermined levels and is used to drag sediment along the seabed. Because the vessels are small and maneuverable in comparison to, particularly, trailing dredgers, ploughing is utilised to move material from areas inaccessible to the main dredging plant. As with water injection dredging, ploughing should not lead to significant re-suspension of sediment but if the sediment ploughed is soft it may be sufficiently disturbed to rise in to suspension. Ploughing equipment has also been deployed in the Thames to level sand waves in the channel bed, but without significant success. Upstream of the study boundary at least two sites are licensed to use plough dredging on a frequent basis thus remobilising sediment on a little and often principle.

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