Bacton gas terminal
The UK's only link with mainland Europe's natural gas network is in danger of falling into the sea, a fact that has started a rescue effort involves thousands of tonnes of sand.
Coastal erosion is an ever growing problem in Britain and it threatens communities and critical infrastructure alike. It's a particularly pressing issue on the east coast of England where, in 2013 a storm caused a huge tidal surge, the largest seen in the area in 60 years. The Norfolk village of Hemsby saw 10 metres of cliff wiped out in this single instance, as three cliff top homes were taken over the edge with it and four more badly damaged.
A few miles along the Norfolk coast from Hemsby is another small village; Bacton. For nearly 50 years, Bacton has also served as one of the UK's most important energy hubs as it is home to the nation's only terminal that the links UK gas network with that of the rest of Europe. Facilities at Bacton are run by large energy firms such as Royal Dutch Shell and Perenco and take in gas from offshore as well as two interconnector pipelines from the Netherlands and Belgium. During peak demand times, the facility can pump through millions of euros of gas a day.
As well as presenting a danger to the energy infrastructure, it is estimated that around 200 homes in the area are in danger of being lost in the next 5-10 years. The problem of coastal erosion is therefore both a local and a national problem.
Tasked with designing coastal protection for this site of national importance is Dutch engineering and project management consultancy, Royal HaskoningDHV.
The north Norfolk cliffs are comprised of soft sediments which, during coastal erosion, are easily washed away into the sea and transported along the coast. Taking inspiration from similar examples in the Netherlands, Royal Haskoning came up with a "sandscaping" solution. Costing around £20-million (€23-million), work is set to begin on the project this coming July when the weather is most likely to be favourable. It is expected to last around five months and will involve large dredging ships sucking up huge amounts of sand from the seabed, enough to half-fill Wembley Stadium, with pumps and putting it back on the beach.
Not only will the sandscaping project protect the gas terminal from cliff erosion, it will also protect Bacton and the neighbouring village of Walcott.
Jaap Flikweert, Royal HaskoningDHV, Flood and Coastal Management Advisor, said: “By implementing an innovative solution and turning this from a terminal protection scheme into a multi-objective project, we can not only protect some of the UK’s most critical infrastructure but also the communities who share that stretch of coastline. In addition the amenity of the shoreline will be improved.”
“As the project developed, we recognised that if we can design to avoid making things worse for neighbouring communities, we should be able to design to make things better. Once we settled on the use of sand, we could factor in enough material (around 1.5 million cubic metres of sand in total) to help restore the neighbouring village beaches that over time have suffered from serious erosion which has eaten away the buffer in front of the seawall. The solution will provide several hundred people in the community extra decades of protection from the sea, therefore buying them time to adapt to the inevitable coastal erosion.”
Bacton sandscaping - Before & After
Royal HaskoningDHV's detailed design for sandscaping at Bacton.
Back to Homepage
Back to Construction & Engineering