Survey could help combat storm threat

You may recall that in October 2023 a one-in-30-year storm overtopped the North/East harbour wall, causing damage to some boats on the esplanade and flooding storage areas.
The Harbour Trust decided to undertake a design exercise to see if the existing Rock Armour sea defences could be improved to provide better protection to the North harbour area in the future.
A marine engineer (Wallace Stone) has been appointed to provide appropriate marine engineering advice, and, on their recommendation, a drone survey was carried out at low tide in early August this year.
The survey images were subsequently forwarded to engineering consultants Tetra Tech, who have completed a wave-modelling exercise to show how the existing Rock Armour and harbour wall performs in a variety of anticipated weather and tidal conditions.
This exercise has been completed, and Wallace Stone will now carry out a design exercise to allow them to recommend proposals to minimise or eradicate the overtopping of the harbour wall in future storm conditions.