Balfour Beatty starts one of UK’s largest coastal protection schemes

6745 Balfour Beatty has started work on one of the largest coastal defence schemes in the UK which will protect over 12,000 homes and businesses from the risk of coastal flooding while regenerating parkland for local community use.

The £73 million (€88 million) scheme consists of two separate projects along the Fylde Coast at Rossall and Anchorsholme, County Lancashire, north-west England, which will renew 2.9km of sea walls and the promenade and preserve its renowned sandy beaches.

The £20 million Anchorsholme Scheme is being carried out for Blackpool Council and the £53 million Rossall Scheme for Wyre Council and together they will see the existing 1930s structures completely renewed.  Both schemes are majority funded by the 3625 UK Environment Agency and form part of the wider Fylde Peninsula Coastal Programme.

The first rocks for constructing the lower revetment structure and groynes have bee laid at Rossall. This rock armour element will create the lower section of the defences, with pre-cast and in-situ concrete elements forming the upper section. Over the next three year period, Balfour Beatty will install 325,000tonnes of rock onto the beach.

Sheet steel piling works will start at Anchorsholme to form the bottom of the new defences along the beach and they will be capped with a concrete beam providing further defences.

Balfour Beatty has extensive experience in delivering coastal defence schemes in this region, including the £75 million Blackpool Central Area Coast Protection Scheme and the £19 million Cleveleys Coastal Defence & Improvements Phases 2, 3 and 4 for Blackpool and Wyre Councils and nationally the £5 million River Mersey Flood Defence Scheme and the £2.7 million Humber Coastal Defence scheme.

Balfour Beatty has incorporated Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology into the design and planning of both schemes. BIM will provide a maintenance and operation schedule for the customer to use to manage the new assets and prolong their lives.

Mark Farrah, Balfour Beatty regional managing director, said: “We are delighted to be delivering these new schemes at Rossall and Anchorsholme. We have extensive experience in delivering coastal defence projects in the region and across the country.  We shall be using the latest construction techniques including Building Information Modelling to ensure that we deliver assets which really stand the test of time and protect the coastal communities of the Fylde for years to come.”

Works on Anchorsholme will be completed in autumn 2015 and the Rossall works in the summer of 2017.