SRA Annual Report 2024-25: Desilting structures
Somerset Council budgets allow for bridges and culverts to be desilted when there is a threat to those structures. A danger, for example, of them being damaged because of the sheer volume and weight of material built up inside and around them.
Extra SRA funding allows for desilting works that benefit both structures and the watercourses flowing through them – and nearby roads, land and properties.
One structure was desilted in 2024-25 by Somerset Council. This was Hockholler Bridge, at the A38 Blackbird Bends, where work was done as part of long-running efforts to reduce flooding along a busy, important road. See also the account in this annual report of an SRA-funded investigation into the area around Blackbird Bends.