Birse Civils, a Balfour Beatty company, has been appointed by The Environment Agency as their delivery partner for a £21 million Flood Alleviation Scheme in Morpeth, Northumberland.
The £12 million delivery project has been awarded as part of the Environment Agency’s National Contractors Framework, and is the latest of over 20 schemes Birse Civils have successfully delivered in the North East.
The new and refurbished flood defences in the town will be combined with the construction of an upstream storage reservoir and offer protection from recent flooding. Morpeth has experienced two extreme floods in the last 50 years. Following floods in 1963, defences were built in a number of areas of the town. In 2008, over 1,000 properties were flooded by an event thought to have a 0.73% chance of occurring in any given year. Since 2008 a number of smaller flood events have also affected residents in the town.
The works comprise the construction of flood walls and embankments and the extension and refurbishment of existing defences. There will also be work to construct an earth embankment to store 1.4 million m3 of flood water, as well as tree poles and ancillary access works upstream of Lowford Bridge.
With various protected species present on site, including otters and crayfish, there are strict environmental controls in place. As well as protecting flora and fauna, measures have been implemented to minimise disturbance to local residents and business; in particular those whose gardens will be affected by new flood walls.
Work on the scheme is due to complete in autumn 2014.
THE NCF2 (National Contractors Framework 2) is operated by the National Capital Programme Management Service to deliver the Environment Agency’s flood risk capital programmes. It was awarded to a panel of seven contractors in 2007, covering England and Wales, Birse Civils was one of only two contractors to be placed on both the core (river) and coastal panels. NCF2, and other frameworks, will be replaced this year with the Water and Environmental Management Framework (WEM).
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