Leigh enhancements and Hildenborough embankments scheme

• Client Environment Agency and Jeremy Benn Associates
• Location Leigh Flood Storage Area, Kent, United Kingdom
• Services Project management

Meridian Civil Engineering Ltd provides Project Management services to international design consultants, in this case for Jeremy Benn Associates in the UK for the Environment Agency’s, Leigh Enhancement and Hildenborough Embankments Scheme (LEHES). The LEHES project will reduce flood risk to over 1,400 homes in Tonbridge and Hildenborough by increasing the stored water by 25% from a level of 28.05 metres AOD to 28.6 metres AOD.

The scheme is carried out in two parts in the following order

1. increasing the capacity of the Leigh FSA, and
2. constructing a new embankment to protect homes in Hildenborough.

For part 1 of the scheme, Meridian Civil Engineering Ltd is Jeremy Benn Associates (the Consultant) Project Manager working with the Environment Agency on this nationally significant scheme in the design of upgrades to the existing structures including

• New gates – The design and replacement of 3 steel radial flood gates
• New drive and control system – design and installation of a new drive system and control kiosk for the new gates
• Embankment raising – raising the flood storage height of the existing flood embankments
• New culvert – designing a new culvert to move water away from the railway embankments and into the storage area during a flood event
• Concrete retaining wall – design of a new concrete wall to reinforce the existing embankment at Leigh pumping station to accommodate increasing the flood storage area, and
• Eel pass – design a new eel pass next to the existing control structure. This will allow elvers to swim past the control structure and migrate upstream.

For part 2 of the scheme, Meridian Civil Engineering Ltd is Jeremy Benn Associates (the Consultant) Project Manager working with the Environment Agency to design a new embankment and pump station to protect homes at risk in Hildenborough from increasing risks of flooding due to climate change. Meridian has been working with JBA and the Environment Agency to achieve the following outcomes:

• Southern Water diverting an existing foul main around the new pumping station location
• UK Power Networks upgrading the existing transformer for the new pumping station, and
• Hildenborough embankment and pump station – Design of new flood embankment and pump station with 2x 1cumec pumps, penstock and gate.

Meridian Civil Engineering Ltd has been providing project management on the project on behalf of the consultant for over two years and has been instrumental in the delivery of this significant project.