Tywyn celebrates £7.6M Atkins-designed coastal defences

The Atkins-designed Tywyn Coastal Defence Scheme will be formally opened on Thursday 24th March 2011 by Jane Davidson AM, Welsh Assembly Government minister for environment, sustainability and housing.

The £7.6M scheme provides protection along the 1.8km coastal frontage of the North Wales town of Tywyn, where more than 70 properties had been at risk of flooding, particularly during stormy weather.

Rob Morgan, principal engineer at Atkins, said: “Tywyn is in Cardigan Bay on the Welsh coast, which experiences a lot of turbulent weather and storms and associated flooding. Over the past 15 years, Gwynedd Council has considered a number of flood protection options and have sought suitable funding and looked for a scheme that was in-keeping with the character of the town’s Victorian promenade, which was constructed in the 1890s. Atkins designed this scheme to be sensitive to its character and heritage and to not cause any secondary impacts further along the coastline.”

The design involved the construction of a new large rock breakwater located above low tide level – designed to break waves and mitigate overtopping at the sea wall – rock groynes and a rock revetment to protect the town. The scheme also included replacement of the timber groynes, a new concrete stepped revetment to the base of the Victorian promenade, sea wall repairs and other associated improvements.

Some 51,000 tonnes of rock was used for the defences sourced locally from nearby Penmaenmawr and Minffordd as well as from St. Malo, Brittany.

The scheme, which began in 2009 and has been popular with the local community it now protects from the outset, was funded by the Welsh Assembly Government (£4.1m) and the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Funding (£3.5m).