THIS month marks the first anniversary of the coastal defence scheme work starting at both the Central Prestatyn and Rhyl sites.
The projects, which are jointly worth £97million, are designed to protect properties along the Prestatyn and Rhyl coast.
Work at the Central Prestatyn coastal defence scheme focuses on the area adjacent to Rhyl Golf Club.
This project will protect more than 2,000 properties from potential floods and coastal erosion for the next 100 years.
The Prestatyn scheme is centred on building a high embankment to protect the area from coastal flooding.
The embankment is being built in three stages, with the work currently coming towards the end of the second phase.
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£92million coastal defence works in Rhyl and Prestatyn set to start
Rhyl’s West Promenade partially closes for coastal defence works
This means all work on building up the protecting embankment, concrete repairs on the promenade and construction of two new outfalls will soon be complete.
Once this phase has come to an end, workers will have placed 52,800m³ of stone fill to the embankment, the equivalent volume of 440 average sized static caravans.
Much of the stone used is limestone which comes from a quarry in St George, Abergele.
After phase two is complete, the scheme will be demobilised until the end of the settlement period.
This will allow the stone and ground on the embankment to settle properly, before the final level can be added.
During this settlement period engineers will be monitoring the settlement data closely to determine when the next stage can then commence.
The Central Rhyl coastal defence scheme is now more than one-third of the way towards completion, and is on schedule to finish in autumn 2025.
It is estimated that approximately 550 residential and 45 non-residential properties – including key seafront landmarks, businesses and homes – will be protected thanks to this work.
In the past 12 months, more than 90 people, ranging from security personnel to engineers, beach marshals and plant operators, have been working hard on both the western and eastern sections of the scheme, during all hours and in all kinds of weather.
The western section is progressing well; most of the work in this area is concentrated, as it involves lifting and widening this part of the promenade considerably, as well as installing a new revetment.
The revetment is made up of 760 pre-cast concrete panels, each weighing 13 tonnes, the same as a double-decker bus.
To date, 197 pre-cast concrete panels have been placed on 3,200 m³ of a concrete base, which has come from suppliers in Llysfaen and Abergele.
Work on installing these started last October, with work heading eastwards now; when this stage is complete, widening and lifting the new promenade will begin.
The eastern section runs from down towards Splash Point, where most of the work in installing the rock toe protection (rock buried below the sand) to fortify the existing defences has already been completed.
An estimated 29,300 tonnes of rock will be used on this section, the equivalent of 2,253 double-decker buses.
The large ramp which has been installed will remain, as it is to enable disabled access to the beach; work on this section is expected to be completed by summer.
Both schemes are funded by Welsh Government and Denbighshire County Council, with the work being carried out by Balfour Beatty.
More than 140 people -have been employed on both Rhyl and Prestatyn schemes in the past year.
Cllr Barry Mellor, lead member for environment and transport, said: “It is so pleasing to see that progress on both of these schemes is progressing so well.
“These schemes will be protecting thousands of properties and people from potential coastal flooding.”
Balfour Beatty project manager for both schemes, Chris Hull, said: “We’re delighted at the excellent progress we’ve made on both schemes.
“They’re both very different projects, with very different challenges, but we are happy to report things are bang on schedule with the Rhyl project and, even better, in Prestatyn’s case, ahead of schedule.”
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