Use of hydraulic excavation for cleaning and construction of water bodies

The materials in this paper are based on practical work performed by the establishment JSC “Sapropel’” in cleaning water bodies sand small rivers in Nizhnii Novgorod and the Nizhegorodskaya Oblast. For this purpose, the establishment has developed and built small dredges with a water output of 400 – 1600 m³/h. Using these dredges, significant volumes of water bodies can be cleared of silt deposits in order to return them to their normal ecological state for water management. An algorithm for selection of the type of dredge as a function of the volume to be cleared, the time required for the work, and characteristic features of the soils has been developed based on analysis of the work performed.