Fairbourne

The sea wall defending Fairbourne frontage was at risk of failing as a result of shingle bank depletion on the seaward side.

Following recent storms (2014, 2017, 2020), the volume of material at the southern end of the village had been lost significantly from coastal erosion, and as a consequent of long-shore drift, has accumulated at the northern end of the village.

The storms in February 2020, has severely eroded sections of the shingle bank to the point that the seawall was at risk of being undermined if further high tidal storms are expected

The shingle bank is a sub-asset to the seawall. The seawall relies on the shingle bank as protection from erosion and protects the community of Fairbourne from coastal flooding. The village is built on reclaimed land which would originally have been tidal/estuarine flats. Should the seawall fail, there is nothing to prevent the sea from reclaiming the land, therefore the entire village is at risk.

The works entailed moving material from the North Beach to the South Beach, Fairbourne. 22,500tons of material was required to fill the depleted shingle banks to their target profile, the entirety of this material was sourced from the North Beach shingle bank. Excavation only targeted freshly deposited material from previous 3 years, this was clearly defined from the land surveying work carried out in 2017 and 2020.