Clyst St Mary Flood Alleviation

During May, a group of AWP employees joined other members of the ICE Exeter City Club in attending a nearby site visit at Clyst St Mary Flood Alleviation Scheme.

The visit involved a walkover of the flood defences, with Tom Walling from the EA talking through the costs, construction, and benefits of the scheme. It was fortunately a sunny day, but the area had recently suffered from a lot of rain, and therefore the water level was very high so the sheet pile wall and flood plain could be seen in action. Tom outlined the different constraints the project faced and interesting stakeholders involved. This included tree preservation orders requiring vacuum excavation, diversion of the existing leat, and liaison with Historic England on the medieval bridge that forms a key part of the flood defences. The locals were also keen to get involved in the project, and there’s now a group of trained volunteers in place who are responsible for installing the temporary flood gates as the last piece of the flood defence when required. 

Following this visit, Fleur and Ralph compiled a presentation on the scheme for the wider office in one of our Friday Morning Meetings. This enabled all of the AWP team to learn about the scheme, which generated discussion between colleagues regarding types of flood defence, flood modelling and how to involve stakeholders.