Water Lane in Shrewsbury: retaining wall repairs to begin in June

Work to repair the riverside wall which supports Water Lane alongside the River Severn in Shrewsbury is scheduled to start on Monday 3 June 2013 and is expected to last for a period of about 11 weeks. 

This part of Water Lane was closed for safety reasons in May 2012 on an emergency basis after part of the riverside wall collapsed due to flood-related damage. 

The proposed repair will involve installing a new sheet pile wall in front of a length of approximately 30 metres of the old riverside wall.  Ground anchors will then be installed to help support the new wall before its top is encased in structural concrete. 

Because of the restricted nature of the access available to the site, it is envisaged that most of the work will be carried out from a pontoon floating on the River Severn. 

In addition to replacing the collapsed length of wall, the proposed work will include carrying out masonry repairs to the rest of the wall.  These defects, which have been identified by means of an inspection carried out be a diving contractor, are generally minor in nature.

Before the proposed work can begin, it will be necessary to temporarily divert a buried pumped sewer which runs along Water Lane.  Part of this advance work, which will be carried out by Severn Trent Water, was initially scheduled to be carried out in March 2013, but had to be postponed until the beginning of June when the sewer was found to be much shallower than expected. 

The complexity of the site means that it is difficult to provide an accurate cost estimate for the repair until tenders have been received from contractors.  However, the provisional estimate is that it will cost approximately £200,000. 

John Williams, Shropshire Council’s bridges and structures manager, said: 

‘‘It is appreciated that the continued closure of this part of Water Lane is causing some inconvenience; however, we hope that people can appreciate that the closure is necessary for safety reasons. 

“Whilst it would have been nice to have been able to complete the repair by now, in reality, following the collapse, there was not enough time last year to design and build it before the onset of winter.  Problematically high river levels and Environment Agency restrictions are reasons why this work could not be built during the winter months.”