The coast protection works at Lyme Regis; the saving of a Gateway Town in a World Heritage Site

The historic town of Lyme Regis lies in an important environmental and geographic setting and has recently been designated a Gateway Town within the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. As a consequence, although it has a basic population of 3,500 inhabitants, this rises to about 14,000 in the holiday season. Lyme Regis, however, also has a long history of coastal erosion and landslide instability. Over the past 100 years in particular, this has resulted in many properties being destroyed and considerable disruption to infrastructure extending up to 1 km inland. Over the years, coastal protection and land stabilisation measures have been largely piecemeal, responding to particular events. However, since the early 1990s, the coastal authority, West Dorset District Council, have provided a more proactive and sustainable strategic approach to address the problems.

The approach has been to provide solutions which are particularly resilient and robust but also reconcile the unique terrestrial, marine, historic and architectural environment using innovative solutions and best practice. The solutions employed benefit coastal tourism and economics. They achieve high aesthetic standards which are in keeping with the unique setting of the town, improving and enhancing the existing town landscape. The solutions were designed to be readily constructible, to allow tourist interests in the town to be maintained and to cause as little disruption to the holiday season as practical, even though works are often carried out in densely developed areas with poor access. The Phase II Lyme Regis Environmental Improvements comprised land stabilisation works, coast protection works and landscaping. This paper will describe the studies and investigations, design, construction and performance of the foreshore elements of the scheme.

• Introduction

• The Phase II Environmental Improvement Scheme

• Foreshore Works – Design Approach, Assumptions and Criteria

• Numerical & Physical Modelling

• Scheme Selection

• Beach Nourishment

• Beach Holding Structures

• Construction of the Foreshore Works

• Post placement behaviour of the nourished beaches

• Conclusion

• Acknowledgements

• References