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    East Lytham Flood Defence, Blackpool, UK

    GRP Access Structure

    Project Overview

    A Dura Composites Access Structure made from our non-corrosive, non-conductive and lightweight Glass Reinforced Polymer (GRP) provided exceptional strength, toughness and consistency for this flood defence project in Lancashire.

    Low maintenance access walkways that boost safety.

    Flooding of Lytham in Lancashire and its surrounding farmland has been a problem for many years. The area is flat and low lying and is drained by two watercourses, Liggard Brook and Main Drain. These watercourses discharge into the Ribble Estuary through tidal outfalls. Twice a day, at high tide, the outfalls are tide locked as sea levels are higher than the water levels in the in-land waterways. This means that water cannot pass from the land out to sea and when this occurs together with heavy rainfall, flooding is the inevitable result.

    The East Lytham Flood Risk Management scheme was designed to protect 752 residential properties, 286 commercial properties and 974Ha of farmland at fluvial flood risk. The joint venture clients’ requirements to help mitigate the risk of flooding included a price-competitive, corrosion-resistant and safe GRP installation with rapid install capability. After a competitive tender process, Dura Composites were chosen to supply a Maintenance Access Walkway Structure with a bespoke design, interfacing with steel pipework. The GRP structure had detailed specifications that our market-leading Dura Profiles were able to comply with including stringent deflection criteria and a 10kN ‘Debris Point’ from floating debris.

    The Dura Profile range from which the East Lytham installation was fabricated includes Angle, Channel, Beam, Box and Tube sections. Weighing around 50% less than steel, Dura Profile offers equivalent performance for considerably less weight. This results in major cost savings due to more economical transportation, handling, and on-site fitting. It is fast becoming the material of choice for work platforms, ladders, handrailing, cable trays, flow sub-structures and more, thanks to its corrosion-resistant, high strength, low weight, non-conductive and UV resistant characteristics.

    Our GRP fabrications adhere to the high slip resistance standards (BS 4592-4:2006) and meet stringent quality and safety criteria.

    Contractor

    Mott MacDonald
    BAM Nuttall

    Client

    The Environment Agency

    Products

    Access Structures

    Services

    3D Scanning
    Fabrication & Build
    Design & Engineering

    Completing these works with a scheme value of £3.7m and benefits of £200m means that over 1000 homes and businesses are protected, as well as large areas of farmland, making the local community confident that the system and the flood risk is being managed effectively by the environment agency.

    Adam Manley

    Environment Agency

    East Lytham

    Our Specialists

    Our innovative recyclable products can help accelerate the construction of critical infrastructure. Talk to our experienced team about how you can tap into our specialist knowledge and engineering capability for your project.