The Environment Agency is starting repair works to the sheet pile flood defences along the Taw Torridge estuary at Bideford later this month.

Constructed in the eighties the 250 metre long wall along Riverside Walk protects over 500 properties on the Riverside development and beyond from flooding.  Over recent years the steel piles have suffered from aggressive corrosion and now need to be coated with a special paint to protect them for the future.

Dawnus Construction Ltd, the Environment Agency’s contractor on the £250,000 project will take three months to complete the work.

The work will include carefully cleaning and repairing the rusty piles then applying a corrosion resistant paint.  Site access will be from the slipway.