Media centre

Monday 12 Dec 2005

£1.7 MILLION SAFETY WORKS COMPLETED ON CAMBRIAN SEAWALL

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Following severe storms and natural erosion, complex engineering works to repair the sea defences at Friog have been completed by Network Rail.  The works have taken almost eight months to complete and have cost over £1.7 million. Over the last few years, Network Rail has been closely monitoring the sea wall at Friog as not only does it run beneath the Cambrian Coast railway, but the defences have been subject to natural erosion over time.  With a repair scheme developed and contractors poised to start work, the defences were hit by severe weather on 27 March, closing the line between Fairbourne and Llwyngwril for over a month, while concrete infill was used to stabilise the wall. Mark Langman, Network Rail’s General Manager for Wales & the Marches, said: “This has been a tough project for our engineering team as not only was access to the site limited to a maximum of 1.5 hours a day due to the tides, but they also had to minimise any disturbance to the protected wildlife – such as the Honeycombe Worm and Chough bird nesting sites. “They had to avoid the shingle beach, meaning the last part of the journey to the site had to be negotiated through shallow sea water, and the concrete mixers had to be placed inside vehicle-borne skips to ensure no concrete spilled onto the beach.” Steps that were taken to make the sea wall safe:

• The area exposed by the collapse was rebuilt with large granite stone blocks at the base and a section of large timber joists at the upper level
• The fractures in the wall were pinned with steel bars to prevent further cracking
• The area between the wall and the cliff face, where new voids have appeared behind the fractures, were filled with grout
• The stonework was re-pointed – filling the fractures with epoxy mortar to prevent further erosion behind the wall.