TEAM2100 investigating flood and tidal defences

Investigations crucial in making efficient use of Environment Agency’s ten-year programme.

The Environment Agency has confirmed that detailed investigations are being carried out into the condition of flood and tidal defences at London and the Thames estuary. 

The Thames Estuary Asset Management 2100 programme (TEAM2100) will carry out the structural investigations which began in March but will continue for almost a year. 

With CH2MHill, Balfour Beatty and other specialist contractors on board, the Environment Agency has formed an integrated team of note to make up TEAM2100. 

The Environment Agency’s ten-year programme to refurbish and replace tidal flood defences, TEAM2100 is the first major flood risk project in the UK to have put climate change adaption at its core, falling within the national aim to reduce climate change and its consequences. 

The plan is the result of years of serious investigation, study and dialogue with planners, investors and those who live and work in the Thames estuary tidal flood risk area. 

An original plan was established by the Environment Agency 13 years ago in order to develop a strategic flood risk management plan for London and the Thames estuary through to the end of the century. 

The plan, updated last year, set out the strategic direction for managing flood risk and how the Environment Agency will continue to protect 1.25 million people and £200Bn worth of property from tidal flood risk. 

Communities along the Thames estuary and in London benefit from world class defences already but with risk increasing, plans are in place to find out the action needed in the short, medium and long term. 

Investigations need to be carried out because of the age of flood defences, which range anywhere between more than 30 to 100 years old. The result of this will provide valuable information about individual defences, the whole system and their respective conditions. 

Once these detailed investigations are finished, the results will be fed into the ten-year work programme of refurbishment or replacement, which will in turn result in more successful management of defences for the next century. 

Investigations on the defences, which include the Thames Barrier as well as 350km of flood walls, embankments, small embankments flood gates and small barriers will be completed in March 2016. 

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