The Pickering flood defence bund is progressing nicely. The control structure will be complete very shortly, with the last sections of concrete casting probably already finished when you read this. Clay imported from Escrick and Northallerton for the construction of the bund wall (raised embankment) has all now been delivered, so the traffic through Pickering has eased in time for the seasonal tourist boost.
Once the control structure is fully completed, it will be covered by imported clay to a height above ground level of around 2m, which will then butt up against the steel sheet piling alongside the railway on the west side of the valley. The only remaining visible bits of the control structure (actually just a concrete culvert of a carefully calculated size) will be the upstream and downstream faces on either side of the bund. Most of the bund, formed from clay, is already in place across to the east side of Newtondale. The top and downstream side of the bund will be covered with a grasscrete facing to reinforce it in the event of water overtopping. Upstream of the main bund, the lateral bund alongside the railway, to protect it from floodwater, is almost complete too. A substantial trash screen formed of large vertical steel posts is already in place to protect the culvert from floating trees & branches during flood conditions, which could potentially block the outflow.
Within the next month, Jackson’s contractors should be in a position to dig out a new section of the river channel to join up with the existing beck, so its new permanent route will be through the control structure. That will be the momentous point where the temporary diversion channel (currently diverting the beck around the main construction site) can be blocked off and filled in, so Pickering will at long last be protected from up to 1 in 25 year flood events. It’s been a long hard road, but we’re on the final lap. I hope someone has arranged to pay the bill.
That will leave only general site restoration and tree planting to complete, then presumably I can quietly retire to my bath chair and leave you all in peace. And to think I was nobbut a lad when this all started!
There is still a significant degree of interest in both the bund and the more natural ’Slowing the Flow’ measures. All will need careful monitoring and analysis to prove how effective (and therefore cost effective) they are. In the past few months, there have been film crews from Durham and Oxford Universities and a couple of master’s students studying the scheme, which all serves to spread the word around the academic world and hopefully far beyond.