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Repairing the Dawlish seawall

One year after the collapse of the seawall at Dawlish, UK, the marine plant is being prepared to leave the site now that the damage has been repaired.

Just over one year ago, in February 2014, the sea wall at the Devon resort of Dawlish collapsed during fierce storms, causing the ground beneath the mainline railway track, which runs alongside the beach, to subside in dramatic fashion. This spectacular stretch of railway, designed by Brunel and opened in 1846, is the only rail route to west Devon and Cornwall and is an economic lifeline to the region. During heavy storms, trains are often overswept by high waves but in this case there was serious damage to the infrastructure and to coastal properties along a four mile stretch of coast.

Sterling work by the ‘orange army’ of Network Rail engineers and their contractors, working 24 hours per day, got the line up and running in two months (and two weeks ahead of schedule) but restorative work has continued over the next twelve months. Initially, an 80-metre breach in the seawall was temporarily bolstered by using 19 freight containers welded together. Since then, the seawall has had to be rebuilt and fortified with more than 6,000 tonnes of concrete and 150 tonnes of steel. This includes constructing a new sea wall in front of the old wall to give added protection in the event of repeated severe weather. A few miles down the coast at Teignmouth, 25,000 tonnes of collapsed cliff had to be evacuated. In a four-mile stretch of railway, some 600 metres of parapets and 700 metres of track and ballast had to be replaced, along with cables and signalling equipment. The coastal footpath and Dawlish station have also been rebuilt.

The main contractor, Amco Rail, working directly for Network Rail, commissioned Red7 Marine to provide jack up barges as a waterside base for plant and equipment. Their newest jack up, Haven Seariser 4, which was exhibited at last year’s SeaWork, went straight on to this project, arriving onsite at the beginning of September. The jackup was towed to the site by the Falmouth tug MTS Indus, with final positioning on the beach by Taska Marine's 1204 shallow draught, road transportable tug and the local Teignmouth Maritime Services’ recently acquired tug Boojum Bay.

Haven Seariser 4 was used to support a 135t crawler crane hired from Weldex, which was used to install Pre-Cast Concrete L section wall units to increase the seawall height. The barge was expected to finish work in mid-March.

The smaller Haven Seajack was brought in just before Christmas to support a second Weldex crane to assist with drilling operations to secure the L section units. She completed operations successfully and was due to be off hired at the end of February.

The Barge Filmed by Aerial Technics working for Amco Rail & Red7 Marine

Details

  • United States
  • Graeme Ewens