Flood relief channel repairs complete
Royal Borough: Environment Agency reports works near Datchet ‘completed promptly and safely’
Repairs at Black Potts Weir on the Jubilee River are now complete after significant delays.
The Jubilee River protects approximately 3,200 homes in Maidenhead, Windsor, Eton and Cookham from the risk of flooding. It acts as a flood relief channel for the River Thames.
Black Potts Weir repairs are essential to the operation of the flood relief channel.
It is one of five control structures along the length of the Jubilee River and is the final structure separating the tail end from the River Thames near Datchet.
Back in August 2020, Environment Agency inspectors discovered that the downstream area to Black Potts weir had been eroded.
Between October and
Christmas last year, the Jubilee River could not be operated due to the risks this could have posed to the weir structure and the railway bridge above it.
The Environment Agency had ‘a very short period of time’ to bring the Jubilee River back into service ahead of anticipated high flows in the River Thames from Christmas onwards.
However, there were delays. Works were due to finish in December but this was pushed back until March, as surveys showed how much needed to be done to complete permanent repairs.
More delays, such as pausing in June for the Royal Windsor Horse Show, pushed the finish date back further.
The first task was installing a line of new sheet piles downstream and backfilling with grout and ballast. This was completed before Christmas.
In February, more repairs began. About 56m of steel sheet piles were installed and 92m of grout was pumped behind steel sheet piles to fill voids caused by scour.
Around 3,900kg of concrete was poured to create new apron slabs, while more than 2,800 tonnes of rock armour stone and 360 rock bags were placed to help protect the weir from future erosion.
The Jubilee River is now
fully operational.
The weir is also integrated into the railway bridge that carries the Windsor & Eton Riverside branch line, so repairs should protect the bridge for the next 60-100 years, according to the agency.
A spokesman said: “The repairs we carried at Black Potts Weir were completed promptly and safely, enabling this key flood asset to be ready for this winter’s high river flows and to operate for years to come.”