Earby culvert repaired by JBA Bentley

The Environment Agency has carried out £1M worth of repairs to a culvert in the Lancashire town of Earby in an attempt to reduce the risk of flooding to 91 homes and 17 businesses in the local area.

Works began in July 2018 and continued up until recently with the main objective of the project being to make the Victoria Clough more structurally solid after the previous culvert had partially collapsed beneath the disused railway embankment where it was built.

The Environment Agency’s contractors, JBA Bentley, carried out the installation of the new 40m culvert using a technique named ‘pipe bursting’ while also lining various other sections so that the total length of the culvert reached approximately 60m, travelling beneath Victoria Road and the A56 Skipton Road.

The Flood Risk Advisor at the Environment Agency, Paul Swales stated: “Earby has suffered devastating flooding over recent years, most notably the Boxing Day 2015 flood. We’re delighted that this project is now complete and will bring significant flood risk benefits to homes and businesses in Earby.

“While we carried out this work, traffic management was in place for some time and delays were encountered, so we’d like to thank residents and businesses for their patience and understanding while we carried out this essential work to reduce flood risk.”

Culverts are underground networks of drainage which carry excess water away from watercourses when levels become exceptionally high, for example in times of torrential rain.

Funding for the Earby Culvert repair scheme, which totalled more than £1M, came out of both the Grant in Aid fund, which donated £813,000, and the Yorkshire Local Levy fund, which donated £200,000, with further flood protection structures planned for the area in the form of a New Cut flood wall which may commence at the end of 2020.

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