Two schemes completed by Team Van Oord on behalf of the Environment Agency were acclaimed at the 2016 ICE East of England Merit Awards ceremony in Newmarket on 15 September.
The Whittlesey Washes Reservoir scheme received a Merit Award in the ‘Team Achievement’ category, while the Happisburgh to Winterton sea defenses received a Merit Award for ‘Physical Achievement’ and was Highly Commended in the ‘Team Achievement’ category.
ICE East of England presents its Merit Awards every year to celebrate and recognize outstanding civil engineering.
The awards are given projects of all sizes and scopes from across the region – from small local schemes costing tens of thousands of pounds to multi-million pound cross-county infrastructure works.
The Happisburgh to Winterton sea defense improvements have maintained the current standard of protection to this section of the North Norfolk coast, thereby safeguarding internationally designated sites, productive agricultural land, more than 500 homes, numerous commercial properties and a thriving tourist industry.
The scheme, carried out in partnership with designers CH2M (Halcrow), included a full assessment of beach levels to ensure protection to the concrete sea wall, reconstruction of 17 timber and steel groynes and construction of one new groyne.
The team faced and overcame many challenges in delivering the project including weather conditions, environmental considerations and unexploded Second World War bombs.
Whittlesey Washes Reservoir forms part of a major flood defense system for the river Nene in Peterborough.
The project involved strengthening 16km of the reservoir’s 18km south bank by placing 300,000 tonnes of material and installing a low level, 250m long concrete wall.
The works were completed a year ahead of program despite having to comply with a working window of July to October to avoid disturbing overwintering and ground nesting birds.
Team Van Oord design partners Royal HaskoningDHV were also engaged on the project under a separate commission with the Environment Agency as a follow on from work on an earlier Framework.