The Newlyn Tidal Research and Development project has won the Sustainable category at The Concrete Society’s Devon and Cornwall Regional Awards 2022. The project provides learning opportunities, and hopefully coastal authorities can use this technology in other projects and locations in the future.
Binnies provided core team members for this project. Andrea Northey, Maritime Engineer, was the site supervisor, and Amy Roberts, Environmental Scientist, was the Environmental Clerk of Works. They worked alongside the Environment Agency (EA) and principal contractor Kier to deliver this sustainable, innovative project.
The EA secured funding from Interreg, under its sustainable and resilient coastal cities (SARCC) project, to investigate potential ‘nature-based solutions’, which will demonstrate both environmental improvements (lower carbon consumption, habitat creation, etc.) and flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) benefits. Eco-engineered blocks were placed on and around the existing Newlyn breakwater, and improvements to the marine habitat are being assessed following a regular monitoring regime. The project is already showing signs of marine growth after just 10 weeks, so it’s off to a very encouraging start. It is providing additional intertidal marine habitat at Newlyn and creating a greener aspect to the existing, traditional rock armour breakwater.
The existing breakwater at Newlyn provided an ideal location to implement the eco-blocks. It is home to a wonderfully diverse rocky shore. The low-carbon armour units, of which 88 were placed on and around the existing breakwater at Newlyn, are a maximum size of 5 tonnes, and they have been designed to not only function as coastal armour but also encourage colonisation on their surface by marine life. Early signs indicate that this will be successful.
The research and development findings at this site will inform the EA’s approach to lowering carbon and building in new habitat to future coastal projects.