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Bolina Safety Booms – Keeping the River Trent safe for 20+ years

Bolina Safety Booms – Keeping the River Trent safe for 20+ years

BOLINA SAFETY BOOMS – KEEPING THE RIVER TRENT SAFE FOR 20+ YEARS

Learn how Bolina Safety Booms have helped to keep the River Trent safe for more than 20 years despite floods and other threats.

As the third longest river in the UK and a major part of England’s history, culture and economy, the River Trent has played a major role in shaping the country’s boundaries and geographies. Unfortunately, however, this can be meant more literally than realised as the river is also known for its dramatic and dangerous flooding after storms and spring snowmelt, which has resulted in it changing course and causing damage to both human lives and properties.

Furthermore, in addition to its unpredictable nature, the river has several canals, weirs and locks along its course creating hazards for boats and other river traffic to contend with as they navigate it. As one of the major waterways in England, passing through several highly populated towns and cities, there are several types of watercrafts that utilise the 188km of legally navigable river.

These range from vessels as large as 330ft in the tidal river, through to barges and pleasure boaters. In a sign of how challenging navigating the river can be, the authorities have restricted navigation on the river to experienced, well-equipped boaters.

Bolina Safety Booms – Keeping the River Trent safe for 20+ years
Keeping the River Trent safe

As part of efforts to keep the river safe for traffic, Bolina has been involved for more than 20 years in the protection of people and critical infrastructure. Not only are our safety barriers deployed to help protect boaters and their craft, but they are also used to prevent them from being blocked by large floating objects, such as tree branches and debris from flood damage.

These booms – most commonly our Safety Booms range – create a safety barrier that prevent even the smallest of craft from passing through. They offer great value for cost, given that the Canal & River Trust have been using them for two decades, and they have been completely maintenance free ever since, even withstanding the impact of steel-hulled boats.

Manufactured with an internal closed cell polyurethane foam filling that ensures the float will maintain full buoyancy in an unlikely event where the outer float skin is damaged by a heavy collision – they are virtually unsinkable. Moulded in one piece, the buoys cannot be split, and can withstand even the harshest of environments – perfect for operating in the conditions presented by the River Trent.

Furthermore, the high-quality polyethylene material used for the outer skin has been designed to be resistant to the damaging effects of UV light and colour fade over time, making them ideal for applications in high UV environments.

As mentioned previously, these booms have served an important purpose over the last 20 years, and have saved a variety of watercrafts, ranging from houseboats to narrow boats and barges, from being damaged or lost, after boaters have lost control of their craft and ventured into unsafe areas.

In fact, their robustness made national news in 2006, when the BBC reported that a man was rescued via helicopter after his narrow boat got into difficulty on the River Trent due to floodwaters. The helicopter was able to lift the man to safety after his boat crashed into our Safety Booms near a weir at Sawley Marina.

This incident and many others like it show that our booms offer great value, with the initial capital expenditure amortised over 20 plus years, with no servicing or maintenance costs to be borne by the operator or end users.

For more information, please contact us via: www.bolinabooms.com/contact.

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