Flood protection works along the River Brit at West Bay has been completed.

Dorset Council's flood and coastal erosion risk management team appointed Dorset Highways as principal contractor to manage the three-months construction work, the third and final phase of the West Bay coastal defence scheme.

The downstream western riverbank of the River Brit, next to Parkdean holiday resort, was at risk from breaching and flooding the site.

Worked started on November 30, 2020, with a 12-week window to complete the work by February 26 to ensure the holiday park was ready to reopen for the start of the visitor season.

This started with removing 29 static caravans from the works area, 10 of which had to be lifted off the site by crane.

Next, 380-tonnes of stone was laid to create a haul road along the riverbank to allow safe access for heavy machinery and protect the caravan park infrastructure. The protection works could begin.

In total, 639 sheet piles were installed – averaging around 8m in length – to create a 390m-long flood defence wall. General maintenance was also carried out to the surface water drainage around the three outlet pipes, including building new access steps, and leaving the caravan pitches, and holiday park grounds as found.

Within this construction activity caravans were returned to their bases each week as the work progressed along the riverbank, meaning the works area had to be reinstated – and the haul road removed – as work progressed. The first two caravans were returned to their pitches only four weeks into the project.

With construction work finished, the works area was landscaped.

David Clegg, Dorset Highways service manager for operations, said: "This project had a challenging timescale, during what is a challenging time for all construction sites ensuring workers are in a Covid-secure environment.

"This was not made any easier by the weather conditions throughout the winter period. It was a difficult challenge to balance the needs of the local community and the safety of those working on the site. It is humbling to see what the team were able to achieve in this environment.

"This project has demonstrated the benefits of our highways mixed-economy model, where we can work with private sector partners as well as maintain our own skilled in-house workforce, which makes us an agile, modern highways service."

Construction delivery partners for the project include Suttles Piling, KTM Fabrication, CC Infrastructure, Mark Farwell Plant Hire, G & P Services, Crestmoor Construction, Haskins Fencing and Hanson UK.

Cllr Ray Bryan, portfolio holder for highways, travel and environment, said: "I'd like to praise the efficient collaborative working of our highways and flood and coastal erosion risk management teams in delivering a challenging scheme, quickly, economically and to a high standard.

"I'd also like to thank the team at Parkdean Resorts for working with us to deliver this scheme successfully."

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