Eel Pass Construction

The River Trent is navigable for 117 miles as a result of a construction of a series of locks beginning in the 18^th century.

The locks created trade routes that were important to local economies and are still used today mainly for recreation. A consequence of their creation was a decline in migratory fish populations including eel. Hazelford Lock, east of Nottingham, is a barrier to critically endangered European eel and Fishtek were tasked with the design and construction of an eel pass to help support eel recovery as per the targets of the Humber River Basin Management Plan.

Hazelford weir had a disused boat ramp that was constructed prior to the lock and has long since been redundant.  Fishtek designed a novel and economic solution to incorporate a modular eel pass into the boat ramp.

The boat ramp was broken out to the level required to achieve the target flows as per an approved hydraulic design and an eel pass comprising an aluminium boxed channel lined with eel crawling media was installed in the newly formed channel. The eel pass has lockable hinged lids for security and maintenance and has already been observed to pass eel.