The Environment Agency has announced that the Boston Barrier flood gate is now fully operational and ready to give an enhanced level of flood protection to over 13,000 homes and businesses in the town.

As the centrepiece of the flood scheme, the barrier gate can be raised in just 20 minutes, responding quickly to threats of North Sea tidal surges.

With the whole of the £100 million Environment Agency scheme now two-thirds complete, the project will provide Boston with one of the best standards of flood defence outside of London. Once the scheme is fully completed in 2022, flood risk to over 14,000 homes and 800 businesses will be greatly reduced and allow for the effects of climate change for the next 100 years.

This barrier is part of the government’s long term investment in flood and coastal defences. Since 2015 it has invested £2.6bn to better protect the country from flooding and coastal erosion and is on course to have better protected 300,000 homes by March 2021. Earlier this year, the government announced a record £5.2 billion investment in flood and coastal defences and the National FCRM Strategy will help build a better prepared and more resilient nation.

Environment Agency Boston Barrier project director Adam Robinson said:

“It gives me great pleasure to see the barrier gate fully operational following rigorous testing.

“This marks a huge leap forward for the scheme and there is now a significant reduction to the risk from tidal flooding in Boston. The majority of properties covered by the scheme will be better protected for a similar event to that of December 2013.”

Work on the scheme, which has been identified by government as critical infrastructure, has continued during the pandemic in line with the government’s coronavirus advice with measures in place to ensure safe working procedures on site.

The critical infrastructure project and national priority project for the Environment Agency is being delivered by the BAM Nuttall Mott MacDonald Joint Venture.

The next stages of work will focus on tying-in the further parts of the scheme downstream, including:

• Installing a replacement flood gate at the Port of Boston wet dock entrance.
• Work to tie the project into the Haven Banks Improvement Scheme, a separate Environment Agency project to raise and strengthen the existing flood banks running from the Barrier towards The Wash for a distance of 5 km.

Over 800 properties were flooded across the town in a tidal surge on 5 December 2013. The surge highlighted the need for improved tidal flood defences in Boston, and the barrier scheme became a national priority project for the Environment Agency’s Six-Year Programme six months later.

The Boston Barrier project is expected to be fully completed in 2022.