There is no easy way to give you any sort of a sense of scale with this shot. At low tide between Widnes and Runcorn there is, and has been for as long as I can remember a massive sand/mud bank. There are two channels one on each side, down which the water can flow, allowing water from the higher reaches to drain away.
However recently, since they have started work on the new bridge, and have placed obstructions in the river, the river has changed course and is now washing away this huge sandbank. I was stood watching the water attacking this sandbank and it was quite spectacular, it was almost possible to see the edge being pushed sideways slowly, over a length of maybe half a mile.
The photograph shows a lump of sand maybe the size of a small car crashing into the river. This was happening constantly down the edge of the sand bank.
Of course the next question is where is the river is going to dump the thousands and thousands of tons of sand and mud it is ripping away ?
@melston A very good question Marci, I do know that they took flow readings and how much silt was being carried before they started building. However the river estuary is such a very large complex fluid area, with very strong tides twice a day, and affected by strong winds and heavy rain, as it has a very large catchment area, that I am not sure that they could get a really reliable prediction of what would happen. However to anyone who knows the river in this area, it is quite plain that something odd is happening.
Just downstream from this shot, is the old bridge, this crosses the river at a tight pinch point, so the currant is quite fast, after this the river widens quite a bit, the speed drops and it appears that all this mud is being dropped there, now what affect this will have we will have to wait and see.
I also know that they are not keeping their promises, there is a yacht marina up stream from the building work, they were told that it would be possible at high water ( the only time they can get out to sea) that they would be able to use the navigable channel, they have now been told they can't. The boats are going to have to be lifted out of the water, de-masted and transported by road to Liverpool Docks.
March 4th, 2015
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Just downstream from this shot, is the old bridge, this crosses the river at a tight pinch point, so the currant is quite fast, after this the river widens quite a bit, the speed drops and it appears that all this mud is being dropped there, now what affect this will have we will have to wait and see.
I also know that they are not keeping their promises, there is a yacht marina up stream from the building work, they were told that it would be possible at high water ( the only time they can get out to sea) that they would be able to use the navigable channel, they have now been told they can't. The boats are going to have to be lifted out of the water, de-masted and transported by road to Liverpool Docks.