The Environment Agency is looking to engage with suppliers of all types on methods to renew flood defence assets in the Thames Estuary and ensure that the area is protected beyond the end of the century in a £930M project.
The Thames Estuary 2100 (TE2100) Plan was published by the Environment Agency in 2012 and was touted as “the first major flood risk project in the UK to have put climate change adaptation at its core”. It covers the entire 109km of the Thames Estuary, from Teddington lock in West London to the river mouth at Southend-on-Sea and the Isle of Grain, detailing how 1.42M people and £321bn worth of property and infrastructure will be protected beyond the year 2100.
Major renewal or replacement of the current flood defences (seen in the image above) is a considerable factor, as they came into use in the early 1980s are expected to come to the end of their operational lives between 2030 and 2060.
Making the situation worse, these defences were brought into operation in a time before climate change was a concern, but have now been called into action more frequently than they were expected to. In 2013 Richard Bloore, a civil engineer who was part of the project management team which completed the Thames Barrier, said that the defence had not been designed for global warming and that “a replacement barrier should be planned urgently”.
The Environment Agency is now looking to put in place a next delivery vehicle (NDV) to ensure these assets will be renewed to ensure protection over the immediate decades. The NDV will also look ahead to how flood protection can be managed and ensured through the later two thirds of the century, considering the social, economic and environmental costs and benefits of undertaking flood protection activities.
The £930M project will see a multi-year capital delivery programme put into place to deliver TE2100 Plan’s objectives.
This will involve:
- Taking an optimised asset management led approach to maintaining and improving current flood risk management assets including flood walls, embankments, major barriers, flood gates and pumping stations
- Working with communities to develop visions for their future riversides
- Identifying and protecting land needed for future improvements to flood defences
- Securing third party investment to deliver multiple benefits through flood defence works
- Engaging other asset owners to ensure that the TE2100 Plan is applied everywhere in the estuary, not just to Environment Agency assets
- Monitor how the estuary is changing in response to climate change
- Achieving a sustainable, low-carbon future delivery programme
It is also hoped that the NDV project will optimise the Environment Agency’s approach to asset management, building on the lessons learned in previous arrangements to improve tidal flood risk management.
Consultancies and contractors assigned to the NDV will be expected to carry out works such as:
- Leading a holistic asset management programme to mitigate the risk of flooding to the River Thames Estuary
- Maintenance of fixed flood defence assets such as walls and embankments
- Maintenance of active assets such as barriers, gates and pumping stations
- Modifications or upgrades to existing fixed and active flood defence assets, including the planning and implementation of raising defences in line with the TE2100 Plan
- Creation of new fixed and active flood defence assets
- Design and technical services
- Supporting the Environment Agency in asset management planning and continuous improvement against its ISO55000 accredited asset management system
- Supporting the Environment Agency in fundraising activities
- Supporting the Environment Agency with engagement of third party flood defence asset owners, neighbouring developers and wider local authorities for the purposes of ensuring all risks of flood are mitigated
- Support the Environment Agency in promoting and enforcing relevant legislation
- Actively promoting and demonstrating contributions to net zero goals
It has not yet been determined how long the multi-year agreement will last, nor how many lots it will be split into. It is expected that the procurement will be undertaken in phases, with each phase having a different focus.
For now, the Environment Agency is looking to engage with suppliers on their views on a number of specialist topics to help it develop a suitable asset management delivery platform.
The first phase expected to take place before the end of 2022, with subsequent phases running throughout 2023 until a full tender process is launched.
This article was posted on: Environment Agency seeks suppliers for £930M Thames Estuary flood protection project | New Civil Engineer
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