January 22, 2018 11.21 am This story is over 74 months old

Floods Minister marks start of £100m Boston Barrier work

The barrier should be finished by the end of 2020.
Left to Right: Toby Willison, executive director of operations, Environment Agency; Floods Minister, Thérèse Coffey and Boston and Skegness MP Matt Warman

Floods Minister Thérèse Coffey has marked the start of work on the £100 million Boston Barrier, which hopes to protect the town from flooding.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Monday, January 22, for the Environment Agency scheme which will protect 14,000 homes and businesses from tidal blooding.

Work on the barrier is expected to be complete by the end of 2020, and should make Boston one of the best protected areas from tidal flooding outside of London.

The scheme will feature a moveable gate across the River Witham together with a new control building to operate the barrier, new flood defence walls on both banks and a replacement gate across the entrance to the existing Port of Boston wet dock.

The barrier’s 25-metre wide hydraulic-powered gate, when not in use, will lay flat on the riverbed out of sight, but will be raised to close off the River Witham when flooding is expected, preventing high tides on the North Sea from raising river levels in the town.

Boston has a long history of tidal flooding, most recently in December 2013 when more than 800 properties flooded across 55 streets.

Flooding also occurred in 1953 and 1978.

Floods Minister Thérèse Coffey said: “This government investment will make sure Boston is one of the best protected towns on the east coast and I am proud to be putting the first spade in the ground on this project.

“The Boston Barrier is part of our plan to invest £229 million over the next four years to make sure the risk of flooding to 49,000 homes and businesses in Lincolnshire is significantly reduced.”

Toby Willison, executive director of operations at the Environment Agency, said: “This state-of-the-art defence will help protect Boston’s communities and businesses from the kind of flooding the town experienced in December 2013.

“It’s yet another example of the brilliant work our teams are doing up and down the country to better protect people from flooding, and recently we’ve reached a milestone of an extra 100,000 homes protected.”