What’s At The Barrage

The barrage is home to a number of different facilities. Information about the white water course, barge lock, foot bridge and fish pass are explained in more detail below. Information about the barrage itself can be found on our Home Page. We also have information about Places to Stay near the barrage, Activities and Events, and Nearby Attractions, along with a number of Pictures.

The barrage is currently undergoing a £4.6 million redevelopment project, and various areas may be closed for the next few months. More information about this project can be found on our Redevelopment page.

Operation and Ownership

The Barrage was officially opened with a competition on the white water course on the 25th April 1995. One month later the barrage was inaugurated by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.

Once built, the barrage was owned by a company called English Partnerships, a national regeneration company responsible for the majority of regenerations all over the UK, such as the Thames Gateway in London. However, in April 2001, the ownership of the barrage was passed onto British Waterways, who still own the barrage, along with 11-miles of waterway from the barrage to Low Worsall, near Yarm.

White Water Course

The Tees Barrage White Water Course was built in 1995 at a cost of around £2 million. The course is owned by British Waterways, but managed by Tees Active from an on-site water sports centre. It offers a number of water sporting activities, such as kayaking, white water slalom, play boating, and white water rafting. There is also a surf wave for surfboarding, and easy access to other sporting activates offered by the Tees Barrage, such as dragon boating, rowing and canoeing. It is also very close to a gym, which offers a number of other sporting facilities.

The White Water Course Centre offers log cabins for overnight stays, but there are also a number of other Places to Stay nearby. There is also a practice pool, café, shop, and facilities for car parking, caravanning, camping, and picnicking.

At the moment the course is only open two or three hours either side of low tide, however, there has been a £4.6 million redevelopment plan which involves manipulating water levels using Archimedes Screws. More information about this can be found on our Redevelopment page.

Barge Lock

The lock at the barrage is a simple single-rise lock with two lock gates to allow river traffic to pass through the barrage. It is free to use, as long as the traffic has a permit for travelling on the river both above and below the barrage.

In June 2007, a Tidal Turbine Testing Facility was opened for testing prototype turbine devices. The facility is operated by the New and Renewable Energy Centre based in Blyth, Northumberland. The facility uses the hydraulic head in the barge lock to release water through sluices at a controlled velocity to create a simulation of current conditions further downstream.

The first turbine to be tested at the barrage was called the ‘Evopod’, a semi submerged turbine developed by a company based in North Shields. The Evopod has went on to be a very successful development, winning a number of awards, and is now in its trail stages at Pontaferry in Northern Ireland, monitored by a team at Queens University in Belfast.

Foot Bridge

There is a steel footbridge which carries walkers and cyclists across the barrage along the Teesdale Way, which is a part of the National Cycling Network, leading from the North Sea shore to the Cumbrian Pennines. The bridge is split into two parts, a steel footbridge across the two piers of the barrage, and a hydraulically operated steel bascule which is used to allow river craft to pass through the barrage.

Fish Pass

Migrating Salmon and Sea Trout pass through the barrage every year. A fish pass has been installed the help the fish navigate through the barrage, along with a viewing area near the north bank pavilion. The fish pass still only has provisional approval by the Environmental Agency, as there have been problems with the fish being able to find the narrow entrance to the fish pass, with the delay leading to an excessive number of seals taking advantage of this for prey, and damaging the number of salmon.

Since April 2008, British Waterways have set up a three-year tagging survey to help understand the relationships between the numbers of wildlife around the barrage, focusing on the numbers of salmon and seals during the migration period.

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The Tees Barrage website is currently offering advertisement space for your company, business or brand. We have a number of premium advertisement slots available at £50 per year. This is a unique opportunity, and can guarantee brand awareness from a trusted source with a lot of traffic. It is only available for a limited time only, so please contact us at contact@teesbarrage.co.uk today.

Disclaimer

The Tees Barrage website you are viewing is privately owned, sponsored and operated by Tempest Media Limited.

Tees Barrage.co.uk has no affiliation with any local authority or local waterways.