Dredging Strategy for Port of London

A new publication sets out the current approcach to maintenance dredging in the Port of London area. Published by the Port of London Authority (PLA) in co-operation with the Thames Estuary Partnership, the document sets out the strategic decision-making framework for such activities.
As with many navigable waterways, maintenance dredging is regularly carried out in the tidal Thames. This is to maintain safe operational water depths for navigation and to ensure continued access to many of the 70 plus berths, docks, wharves, and jetties that make up the Port fo London.
The 26-page A5 booklet describes the regulatory framework for maintenance dredging within the Port of London and explores the way the PLA and the Thames Estuary Partnership have worked together to prepare a Maintenance Dredging Framework to provide a decision making process for the licensing of third party dredging and approval of PLA dredging operations.
Areas discussed in the publication include:

• the setting up of a ‘Dredging Liaison Group’ with other regulators, operators and key stakeholders
  
• guidance to berht owners and operators
  
• the development of the tidal Thames ‘Information Exchange System’ (IES): a data management system for environmental information.