Work on the channel has been completed. The focus now shifts to landscaping the surroundings – this includes planting the areas outside the watercourse, installing benches and observation points, and extending the path network.

Following a short ceremony, the excavator opened the dam between the old and the new course of the Glatt. The roughly 700-metre stretch of river bed was flooded from the downstream end – the water flowed in backwards. Within a very short time, the Glatt was meandering through the newly created bends, past steep outer banks and shallow inner banks and structural elements made of deadwood. The straightened course of the Glatt was subsequently filled in.

During the construction works, the Glatt continued to flow in its old, straightened bed. Once the works on the pilot stretch had been completed, the river was diverted into the new channel under controlled conditions and the old course was filled in.

The first two meanders were created along a length of around 240 metres in the pilot stretch. Here, the effects of the measures were observed and analysed – for example, the introduction of structural elements, bank design and adjustments to the river bed. These findings help to optimise the works in the remaining section.

Ahead of the official start of construction and the creation of the near-natural river course, felling and clearing works were necessary along the Glatt. The branch material, trunks and root stocks are being used as structural elements in the new course of the Glatt. They provide fish with shelter and refuge, and invertebrates with a feeding substrate. The structures also create a greater variety of flow conditions in the watercourse, which contributes to a more diverse habitat overall.

The cleared areas will be replanted with native plants later in the project. Once various utility lines had been relocated, work on the future river bed was able to begin.