Scheme to replace groynes at Southern Felixstowe completed
Work got underway on the Southern
Felixstowe sea defences in March 2008 after the Environment
Agency gave the green light for the £10m project that had been
drawn up with Suffolk Coastal.
A series of 21 rock fishtail
groynes have been constructed and the beach between the War
Memorial and Landguard Common 'recharged' by adding extra
shingle to the existing beach to raise the level.
The defences will provide protection for more than 1,600
existing homes and businesses, the Port of Felixstowe and several
environmentally important sites as well as a new sandy shore to
entice more visitors.
The partnership scheme
between Suffolk Coastal and the Environment Agency was
originally scheduled for 2006 but was shelved when the
Government announced in December 2005 that there would be no
funding for any new coastal protection projects anywhere in
Britain in 2006/07.
Since then the Council has had to carry out a series of
emergency projects to give basic temporary protection to the sea
wall and promenade involving placing hundreds of tonnes of rocks
against the promenade. These have been moved and used as part of
the groynes in the permanent scheme.
A ceremony to mark the completion of the scheme took place
on 1 October. As the work will not be completely finished until
mid-October some areas of the beach will remain closed until
then.
The construction contract was awarded to Team Van Oord, a joint
venture of Van Oord UK Ltd, Mackley Construction and May
Gurney.
You can find out more about the scheme and progress of the works
in the project newsletters:
Follow this link for
help with
downloading and opening PDF files.
Follow this link for more
about the background to the project and information
about the
Southern Felixstowe Coastal
Strategy.