Ground investigations start for Lowestoft flood barriers

Balfour Beatty’s £67m Lowestoft flood risk management project has moved a step closer to start of construction with ground investigation works beginning this week.During the December 2013 tidal surge more than 160 homes and businesses in Lowestoft were flooded, and road and rail networks were disrupted.Balfour Beatty is set to begin construction in the autumn of a new tidal barrier and raised new or improved tidal flood walls to provide protection from flooding from the sea. The target date for completion is 2023.The extent of the area at risk of tidal flooding encompasses the area from the Outer Harbour entrance through Lake Lothing to the A1117 Bridge Road crossing and Mutford Lock, which forms the boundary with Oulton Broad.Ground investigation work will last for approximately six weeks and will include small scale coring work and drilling of small bore holes around the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club, ABP Land and in the Hamilton Road area.Funding for the £67m project has come from the government’s Flood Defence Grant in Aid, which is administered by the Environment Agency, as well as from the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, Regional Flood and Coastal Committee Local Levy, Anglian Water, Suffolk County Council and from East Suffolk Council.