Flood defences at Associated British Ports’ (ABP) Port of Immingham are due to receive an investment boost of around £5 million which will increase the port’s resilience to flooding in the future. Immingham, which is the UK’s largest port by tonnage, was extensively flooded during the east coast tidal surge of December 2013, which caused widespread disruption to port users, tenants and key businesses. Although the efforts of ABP’s engineers and the wider port community ensured that the recovery process was quick and straightforward, the incident nevertheless served as a timely reminder of the power of nature and its potentially destructive capabilities.
Since the surge, ABP have been working closely with North East Lincolnshire Council (NELC), the Lead Local Flood Authority and the Environment Agency (EA) on a permanent long term solution to reduce the risk of tidal flooding. Whilst the port’s responsiveness to tidal surges and the individual resilience of specific key pieces of infrastructure has been improved in recent years, it became apparent that the only certain way of improving resilience to tidal flooding was to raise and improve flood defence infrastructure along the coastal frontage of the port.
Preventing tidal floodwaters from entering the lock at the port proved to be one of the most challenging issues to resolve as under normal circumstances, it is required to guide water in to the enclosed dock area. In order to resolve the issue, it was decided that the port would need a set of higher outer lock gates which were capable of being braced in position against a tidal surge.
Since the surge, there has been an interest of a number of key partners in central and local government, with ministers at several government departments expressing concern at the potential risk that the UK’s largest port could be facing in the future. It was noted that the volume and nature of the cargoes that transit the quays in Immingham would be difficult to transfer to other ports, partly because of the sheer scale of ABP’s infrastructure, but also because of the unrivalled logistical connectivity.
NELC, ABP and EA worked closely together on the business case and application for Flood and Coastal Flood Risk Management Grant in Aid from Defra. The EA are able to distribute financial aid to flood defence schemes that have a vital role in protecting communities, vital industries and infrastructure.
With a generous contribution from the EA, the new lock gates with flood resilience capability are currently under construction and are due to be installed in summer 2017.
As part of this funded package of works, the project team will continue to work together to develop further flood reduction processes that will ensure further resilience over the next few years.