Balfour Beatty has started work on a project to protect nearly 2km of the Humber Estuary against flooding for the Environment Agency.

The £2.7m contract is the first phase of a wider scheme to protect thousands of homes and businesses in Grimsby. It includes the creation of a 1,300 metre pre-cast concrete wave wall, repairs to existing concrete defences and improvements to the shore-line earth embankment.

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The works follow the successful completion of another flood defence scheme, also for the Environment Agency in Redcar by Balfour Beatty earlier this year, protecting a thousand homes from potential flooding.

The scheme will use specialist heavy machinery provided by Balfour Beatty's plant hire business, BPH, including a 180-tonne crawler crane which is one of the largest in use in the UK.

Mike Dugher, Area Coastal Manager at the Environment Agency, said: "Thousands of homes and businesses would be at significant risk of flooding should these defences fail. Our previous inspections identified that the flood defences at the docks would benefit from improving so it is vital that we continue to work together on this important project that will benefit thousands of people in Grimsby."

(CD/JP)