Canvey Island Flood Defences

Sea Defence

£75 MILLION CANVEY ISLAND SOUTHERN SHORELINE RENEWAL 2023 - 2025

The Environment Agency is set to begin the renewal of flood defence revetment this financial year, 2022/23, bringing huge improvements to the seafront and shoreline.

  • This £75 million project will renew Canvey Island’s existing flood defences along the 3-kilometre stretch of the Island’s southern seafront.

  • This will ensure the Island is better protected against coastal erosion for a further 50 years, far more able to deal with the effects of climate change and rising sea levels.

  • The work will also include improved public access along the main walkway by widening it at the narrowest areas, providing passing areas at the bottom of steps and ramps.

  • New steps, information boards, markers and resurfacing of the pathway between Thorney Bay and Chapman Sands will also take place as part of the project.

 

How is this being funded?

This project is being funded as part of the Government’s £5.2 Billion Flood and Coastal and Erosion Investment Plan.

 

Canvey Island has been identified as one of the areas within the Plan.

This Investment Plan sets out how 2,000 new schemes will be funded to protect 336,000 properties by 2027, to avoid £32 billion in economic damage and reduce the overall national flooding risk by up to 11%. This follows on from the Environment Agency’s successful rollout of the Government’s previous £2.6 billion Investment Plan from 2015-2021.

The work forms part of the Thames Estuary Asset Management 2100 Programme. This is a 10-year project to improve existing flood defences and is the single largest flood risk programme in the UK, repairing and replacing the most at-risk assets.

 

Why has the Environment Agency identified Canvey Island for this work?

The ground level of Canvey Island is often below the daily high-water mark in the estuary, so the defences play a huge role every single day to manage the flooding risk to people, businesses and infrastructure on the Island.

Sections of the current structure date back to the 1930s and therefore are in need of replacement, extending the high level of protection they are able to provide well into the future. The existing defences are however regularly inspected and maintained by the Environment Agency.

 

Which part of the defence is being renewed?

The renewal will take place between Thorney Bay and Canvey Island Yacht Club (see map).

 

Construction:

The construction is anticipated to take 2.5 years to complete. This is because the work has to be completed during the low-tide window, typically lasting 5 hours a day.

The work will be completed in phases to minimise disruption to the community and the tourism industry on the Island.

 

UPDATE – JUNE 2022

The detailed designs have now been completed and the tendering process is underway.

The site compounds are expected to be established in January 2023, with an expected start date of March 2023 with the work due to conclude by June 2025.

More details and information can be found here: https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/east-anglia-c-e/canvey-southern-shoreline-project/

 

UPDATE - JANUARY 2023

Contractors working on behalf of the Environment Agency will begin to establish the main compound, material storage compound and satellite compound 1 from 3 January 2023 onwards.

The construction works will begin in late March 2023. These will take place in 6 phases using two teams across the 2.5-year duration. These phases are in place to cater for seasonal constraints at the eastern end of the site, the Benfleet and Southend Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the popular amenity area at the western end of the site.

Work to the revetment itself needs to fit into the moving low-tide window, meaning works could take place over an approximate 5-hour period - anywhere between 6am-10pm. Construction works on the landward side of the sea wall will take place within regular working hours (8am-6pm Monday to Friday).

 

Sea Defence

 

Further information

The Environment Agency has a web page for the project and continues to update the detail on the webpage as they finalise their plans. https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/east-anglia-c-e/canvey-southern-shoreline-project/.