River Sow Improvements, Stafford

Client:  Environment Agency

Approx. value:  £4m

Duration:  104 weeks

Work to improve the flood defences in Stafford involved replacement of existing trench sheets with 6-8m long LX16 sheet piled wall (1km of both river banks) supported with ground anchors and associated steelwork, waling beams.  The works passed through the middle of the Victorian park within Stafford town centre.  Works were also adjacent to listed properties, road and pedestrian bridges and close to an archeologically interesting site of a Medieval mill.

Access to the river banks was very limited and in all cases particularly tight and gained, in some cases, through individual properties.  For a short section the access was via the river bed and the whole flow was diverted by overpumping.  Other structures included the construction of concrete retaining walls supported on bored and driven piles where the river line was adjacent to building boundaries.