Forming part of the Welsh Government's Coastal Risk Management Programme, the East Rhyl Flood Defence Scheme aims to prevent coastal flood events and improve the standard of protection to 472 properties in the area, whilst also taking into account the future impacts of climate change.

By undertaking the detailed design, numerical and physical modelling, environmental consenting and business case development of the £30m scheme, we were able to propose a series of defence improvements. Key to these improvements was providing a resilient response to the effects of climate change and also including inbuilt adaptability allowing defences to be extended or modified in the future.

Through the appraisal and concept design phases we were able to identify that the performance standards of the existing defences had been exceeded and that the best way of addressing this would be the construction of a rock armour revetment and new sea wall, designed to absorb wave energy during storm events.

These designs also included the creation of rock revetments, access for pedestrians and vehicles, flood storage areas, surface water drainage and drainage outlets, as well as a new raised promenade - making this one of the largest coastal defence schemes in Wales. By making use of our coastal modelling expertise we were also able to demonstrate the effectiveness of theses designs through the creation of a 3D model and adoption of Multi Variate Approach to derive design conditions.