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River wall repairs following December 2013 surge
originally posted on 22nd October, 2014
Following the surge tide in December 2013 and the catastrophic flooding of 27 houses at Snape, the last few weeks have seen the start of major work to repair the damage to the Snape north river wall by the East Suffolk Internal Drainage Board (IDB).
The Estuary Partnership has been instrumental in discussing the very complex defences at Snape with the Environment Agency, Snape Maltings, Snape and Tunstall council representatives and the local community. Only £75,000 (of which £10,000 was spent by the Environment Agency on assessment work) has been made available from the Government’s post surge Repair Grant. This will be supplemented by some £50-60,000 private funding.
So far some 240 lorry loads carrying about 4,500 tonnes of clay in total has been delivered to the Crown Inn. From there a fleet of four specialist low ground bearing tracked dumpers travelling up to 1km, have enabled some 500 metres of the lowest part of the wall to be reinstated so far. The repaired wall benefits from a wider crest width and shallower back face which makes it more resilient to flood overtopping and lessens the chance of a breach. Walkers will benefit from a wider path and in the event of future repairs, machines will now be able to safely track along the top of the wall to undertake maintenance.
Repair of the River Wall post Surge
Posted on 12th September, 2015
The East Suffolk Internal Drainage Board have recently completed the first phase of the repair to the wall which has been raised to 2.9m (to allow for settlement to 2.7m) a significant improvement from the 2.4m it was in December 2013. The local landowner, Adnams, EA and SCDC have all contributed to the cost and thanks also go to local constructors SEH and Howard Construction who gave over 10,000 tonnes of clay which saved this going to landfill. The Crown at Snape, Ian Rix the farmer and Suffolk Wildlife Trust all allowed access which made the whole project possible. Several options for the next phase – a major capital project – will now be developed for Snape Village and Snape Maltings.