Minister for Infrastructure visit to Belfast Tidal Flood Alleviation Scheme

Charles Brand were delighted to welcome the Minister for Infrastructure, John O’Dowd, to the Belfast Tidal Flood Alleviation Scheme.

The 8.5km of flood defence from Stranmillis to the Belfast Harbour Estate, reduces the risk of tidal flooding to 1533 No City Centre properties from storm events up to a 1:200 year 2080 flood event.

Paddy Harney Charles Brand Project Director congratulated the Project team:

We are delighted to be approaching completion on this strategically important scheme for Belfast despite significant challenges.

 During the construction period 30% of the concrete flood defence was rerouted to avoid conflict with unforeseen utilities in the Belfast Harbour Estate. Also the majority of the Ravenhill Flood Cell needed additional sheetpiles and butyl liner cutoff in order to prevent seepage inundation under the flood defence.

 The logistics and cost of deployment of the demountable flood defences was identified as a major operational risk for DFI. The site team managed to redesign 50% of the demountables originally envisaged and replace them with fixed structures. This has reduced operational risk to a much more manageable level. In addition the scheme has also been designed to integrate with future works and reduce the demountables by a further 30% in the next 5 years.

 Our thanks to all the site team and supply chain on the hard work undertaken to get the project to this stage.