Weirs best practice guidance

This project created new guidance to deal with a lack of understanding about the potential effects of decisions about altering weirs.

Documents

River weirs good practice guide - summary (117KB) PDF

River weirs good practice guide - section A (930KB) PDF

River weirs good practice guide - section B1 (1.7MB) PDF

River weirs good practice guide - section B2 (1.4MB) PDF

River weirs good practice guide - section B3 (787KB) PDF

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Details

This project consulted interested parties, from both inside and outside the Environment Agency, to assess whether they understood how weirs could affect their areas of interest or responsibility.

Background

Every year works are carried out on a large number of weirs, which may have unforeseen effects on other parts of the river. Also, safety at weirs, both for people working there and people enjoying leisure activities, is a high priority. However, the consultation found that few people were aware of the full range of effects that changes to a weir could have on their areas of responsibility. This means guidance is needed on:

  • safe designs
  • how to alter existing weirs
  • the potential effects of any works
  • the effects of doing nothing about a weir in poor condition

Outcome

The output from this project is authoritative guidance to all parties who have an interest in the construction, refurbishment, or demolition of weirs in England and Wales. Its overriding aim is to make everyone aware of the range of issues to be considered when planning and carrying out weir works, or deciding that doing nothing is the best option.

The project started in 2001 and was completed in 2003.

Updates to this page

Published 15 February 2021