ICE Members Tour the Clay’s Lake Scheme

A scheme to provide improved protection against the risk of flooding in and around Gatwick Airport is attracting considerable interest among civil engineering professionals.

On the evening of Wednesday 21 September, Mackley’s Business Development Manager David Knapp and Project Manager Terry Gretton traveled to Norfolk to present the Clay’s Lake scheme to members of the ICE East of England region.

ICE East of England represents around 5,000 members in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Peterborough and Suffolk.

The flood prevention works at Clay’s Lake are being carried out by Mackley working as part of Team Van Oord on behalf of the Environment Agency.

The Clay’s Lake project forms part of the Upper Mole Flood Alleviation Scheme which was developed by the Environment Agency after floods in the Crawley area during 2000.

The works comprise the removal of an existing dam which is being replaced with a larger dam. This will increase the lake’s capacity from 10,000 cubic meters to nearly 400,000 cubic meters, thereby reducing the risk of flood to more than 280 homes in the area, and to Gatwick Airport.

Associated works include the excavation of a ‘borrow’ area to provide materials for the new dam, and mitigation measures including the creation of a pond and tree pruning.

The scheme has received three different site visits in the past 12 months from delegations representing IOSH, the Environment Agency and the University of Brighton.