A joint venture (JV) between BAM Nuttall and Mott MacDonald is to begin a £14 million flood alleviation scheme in Teignbridge, Devon.

BMMJV will start work on the Dawlish beach management scheme later this month, which aims to help protect more than 2,900 properties around the River Exe from flooding.

Significant damage was dealt to groynes at the site during the 2015/16 winter storms, which led to a package of emergency works being completed over spring and summer 2016. These then paved the way for main works to begin this month.

Key highlights of the construction programme are as follows –

• January: establishing site compounds in Beach Road car park and around the Warren

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• February, March and May: removing existing gabion stone. This is to be completed in two phases to avoid the Easter holiday period and allow translocation of sand lizards.

• April to June: installing new timber groynes (groynes 10 to 14)

• May: starting work on the defences at the 'neck'

• June to mid-July: dredging material from Pole Sands, pumped onshore between groyne 1 and 4, to be completed before the start of the summer holiday

• Mid-July to end of August: complete remaining beach replenishment work between groyne 4 to 14

• September: Works completed.

Residents and interested parties are invited to attend a drop-in informational session about the scheme from 3pm – 8pm at Mount Pleasant Inn, Dawlish Warren on Thursday, 26 January.

Richard Cox, Project Manager for the Environment Agency, said: "We are pleased construction starts on site this month. We have invested a great deal of energy and time planning this scheme and have kept those who live and work in Dawlish and surrounding areas informed of developments.

"I would like to encourage as many people as possible to come along to the drop-in session and learn how we plan to build the works over the next nine months. We are phasing works so that construction on the most heavily used sections of beach at the western end of the Warren are complete before the 2017 summer school holidays."

(LM/JP)