Top civil engineer visits Steeple Bumpstead flood alleviation scheme

The Director General of the Institution of Civil Engineers Nick Baveystock will be visiting Steeple Bumpstead to see the flood alleviation scheme next Wednesday (28 May). The scheme is the first project in the East of England to be included in ‘This is Civil Engineering’, a national initiative to illustrate the importance of civil engineering to the public.

 The scheme, which began in Wales,is gradually spreading across the country. 

Without civil engineers, the world as we know it would not exist because civil engineers build the infrastructure society needs to function. Roads, bridges, railways, airports, even our homes and offices depend on civil engineering. To highlight this, banners and site boards are placed on civil engineering projects stating This is Civil Engineering, with a website address providing a wealth of information.

The £4 million Steeple Bumpstead Flood Alleviation Scheme has been welcomed by the residents who experienced flooding in 2007 and 2009 when Bumpstead Brook and Helions Brook broke their banks. The project has been managed by Royal HaskoningDHV on behalf of the Environment Agency and built by Ipswich based Jackson Civil Engineering.

Work began in February 2013 and included re-profiling and re-sectioning the channel along the downstream reach of Helions Brook and a section of Bumpstead Brook.  Six river crossings including footbridges, road bridges and a ford have been replaced with new crossings.

None of the houses in the village were affected by the storms of February 2014. Chairman of the Flood Action Committee, Adrian Burr said residents could finally sleep easy at night: “The scheme has very much succeeded in doing what it was supposed to do. Not one house was flooded during the recent floods and it has made a great difference to the lives of everyone in the village.”

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