Dartford Creek Frontages Project, Erith, Kent
- Client: Environment Agency
- Principal designer: Arup
- Principal contractor: Van Oord ACZ BV
- Contract value: £5 million
About the project
The flood embankments along Dartford Creek provide protection to 620 residential and commercial properties. The Dartford Creek Frontages Project has set a new standard for sustainable, geotechnically innovative flood defence schemes.
The project responded to the urgent need to regain stability and correct slip failures caused by erosion and over-steepening of the river’s banks. Previous remediation efforts had neglected the underlying source of the problem – the progressive erosion at the toe of the slopes. A series of brushwood fagots, held in place by timber stakes and carefully profiled to create a natural river meander, now reduce water velocity and encourage accumulation of silt on the foreshore. Rock rolls – a circular gabion basket – were used to protect the brushwood toe, and steel sheet piles provide further protection. The scheme merges with its suroundings and works with the natural process of the tidal creek.
The Environment Agency is delighted with the successful stabilisation, and with the fact that it was completed ahead of schedule, with £435,000 saved through value engineering. Local community and youth groups volunteered for river clean-up days and hedgerow planting.
Judges' comment
"Natural materials have been used to provide a very sustainable solution to stabilisation and flood protection."