Steart Coastal management Project: Engineering Challenges in a Hyper-tidal Environment

The Steart Coastal Management Project involves a managed realignment scheme to open up farmland to regular tidal inundation and will create 400 hectares of new habitats. Development of a functional scheme was constrained by the need to not increase flood risk to a small community on the peninsula, a connecting road across the peninsula, as well as access to electricity pylons connecting Hinkley Point nuclear power station to the National Grid.

There are many interesting aspects to this scheme including: community engagement which yielded overwhelming public support by residents most affected by the scheme; development of a mosaic of habitat types which would provide wide biodiversity; and developing an engineering design in conjunction with plans for future public access and amenity to the area - all of which led to a large and somewhat radical scheme receiving planning permission first time without objection.