The Canal & River Trust , has started work on an eight month project to dredge sections of the 46 mile Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal from Tixall Lock in Staffordshire to Falling Sand Lock near Kidderminster.
The work, which is costing the Trust £1 million, will focus on areas along the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal where boaters are having difficulty mooring alongside the canal, navigating through bridges or getting stuck on the approach to locks.
In total around 17,500 tonnes of silt will be removed from the canal.
Using a floating dredger, silt and debris which has built up along the bottom of the canal over a number of years, will be scrapped off the bottom of the waterway.
Once collected the silt will either be reused for bank stabilization or sent to landfill.