Flood defence wins award
A FLOOD alleviation scheme in Mytholmroyd has won a prestigious civil engineering award at the 67th annual ICE Yorkshire and Humber Awards.
The annual ceremony took place in Leeds and saw 18 shortlisted projects battle it out to win the Smeaton Award and Centenary Award.
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) chose Mytholmroyd Flood Alleviation Scheme as winners in the Centenary Award category sponsored by YORhub.
On Boxing Day 2015, Mytholmroyd experienced its highest recorded flood level, with 400 properties directly affected by the deluge and storms.
After the flood, central government committed to reducing flood risk in the village with construction beginning 12 months later.
Within five years, the £41m project was completed, better protecting 400 homes and businesses. The completed project includes new, raised and improved flood walls, relocation and increasing span of Caldene Bridge, widening of the river channel at key locations and floodproofing buildings adjacent to the River Calder and Cragg Brook, all within physically constrained conditions.
Mark Cronshaw, VolkerStevin Environment Agency account director, said: “We are very proud to have won this prestigious award. We delivered a complex flood alleviation scheme in a restricted urban environment, despite a pandemic and two major storms.
“We have overcome each of these challenges without compromising on our quality of delivery, our dedication to the community or the health and safety of our workforce. Well done to everyone involved.”