Geograph - photograph every grid square

The Tees Barrage was completed in 1995 as one of the Teesside Development Corporation's flagship projects. Its purpose was to maintain the water level of the River Tees upstream at 2.65m above Ordnance Datum, preventing polluted water moving upstream with every tide, and avoiding smelly mudbanks being uncovered twice daily over the 20km of previously tidal river up to Low Worsall. Construction began in November 1991 and was completed and opened in April 1995. The main part of the barrage as seen here comprises four 50-tonne fishbelly gates, each 13.5m long and 8m high and operated by a 21-tonne hydraulic ram. Water quality improvement upstream was a major project goal, but anyone who has made the error of capsizing whilst kayaking on the adjacent whitewater course will realise that there is still some way to go.