What attracted me of this river and of the area along its banks (called Laganside and measuring 140 hectares) is the environmental restoration project which transformed an abandoned polluted area around a tidal river in an area which now plays a vital role in the life of Belfast city.
The main opera was the Lagan Weir, completed in 1994, which served as river dredging and which has an aeration system: this allowed the control of the water level and the improvement of the water quality.
The photos below (taken from the explicative boards in the area - for this Belfast is very visitor-friendly...you can find descriptions of monuments, buildings, streets, etc. all around the city) show how the Lagan River was before the restoration project.
Before the construction of the Lagan Weir the water level was varying 3 meters between low and high tide. During low tide unsightly and smelly mud flats were exposed. The weir now allows a constant minimum water level upstream.
The over £1 billion of investments consisted also in the dredging of the river, in the removal of contaminants and in the installation of a riverbed aeration system to mix the saline and freshwater upstream and to supply oxygen for the biodegradation of contaminants.
Nowadays the river does not serve only as central point of a lively Belfast, but the restoration project resulted also in the rebirth of the Lagan river as wildlife habitat. Visitors of the river are for example the Common Seals and salmons (who were reintroduced in 1991). Notwithstanding I have not seen any of those :( :(, below is the photo of a nice seal nosing around the river bank (photo taken from the descriptive board).
Last but not least, I am happy that the Lagan Weir was jointly funded by the Laganside Corporation and the European Commission.
And now...(I know you are waiting only for these ;) :P) ...MY photos! :)
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| Lagan Weir, Belfast 2015 |
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| Lagan Weir, Belfast 2015 |
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| Lagan Weir, Belfast 2015 |
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