Favourable Conditions 2018

Client:

The Parrett Internal Drainage Board

Location:

The Somerset Levels

Timeline:

August 2018

Key Facts:

• Flood risk management work
• Flexible approach
• Metalwork fabrication
• Environmental enhancement

Description:

Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) are local public authorities that manage water levels and undertake multi associated functions. Their work forms a critical integral part of managing flood risk and land drainage within areas of special drainage need, covering 1.2 million hectares in England and Wakes including the Somerset Levels. The Parrett IDB works in consortium with the Axe Brue IDB across the Somerset Levels and Hydroline Solutions is an approved contractor to both. The Somerset Drainage Boards Consortium operates and maintains a 1185 Km network of watercourses, known in Somerset as ‘Viewed Rhynes’. The system is designed to provide drainage, flood protection, irrigation and environmental enhancement to help sustain the Somerset Levels and conserve their natural and historic environment.

Hydroline Solutions first worked for the Boards as a subcontractor but having established its own credentials, in recent years it has contracted directly for the Boards. This Hydraulic Engineering project helps maintain the sensitive local environment and guards against flooding. The works undertaken were typical of the type and circumstances of work carried out for the boards. It included:

• Sheet piled tilting weirs with walkways
• Piling rhyne banks
• Alterations to ground profiles adjacent to structures
• Filling, rebuildingand building rhyne banks
• 'Stanking off’ ditches and dewatering (similar to forming small cofferdams)
• Stop log structures
• Fabricating associated metalwork – for which Hydroline Solutions has its own workshop facilities
• Fencing