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Carlisle Flood Risk Management Scheme Phase 2

Information on this page has been provided by the Environment Agency and was correct at the time of upload. The Flood Hub is not responsible for any information held on this page. For any enquiries, see the Contact section of the page.

Introduction

Overview

The Carlisle Flood Risk Management Scheme will be delivered in three phases. These pages describe the second of these phases. The work delivered in this phase provides further flood protection to the heart of the city of Carlisle including important transport infrastructure, commercial and leisure facilities as well as residential properties. This scheme reduces flood risk to 50 residential homes and a further 33 other properties including the Sands Centre and Civic Centre. It also reduces flood risk to Hardwicke Circus, Castle Way and the A7 over Eden Bridge providing much more resilience to the city’s key transport routes.

Construction work for phase 2 of the Carlisle Flood Risk Management Scheme included both raising and extending the pre-existing flood defences to a level that provides protection from future flood events as large as those which followed Storm Desmond in December 2015.

The flood defences form a continuous line of defence extending from the playing fields of Trinity School in the east (which are significantly higher than the peak flood levels from December 2015) to the high ground of the Castle in the west. The scheme includes almost 1,000m of flood defences comprising a combination of flood walls, embankments, flood gates and a raised road. To assist with the planning and delivery of this scheme it was divided into 10 distinct areas (ground investigation works confirmed that no works are required in area 1). The map below shows the extent and location of each of these areas, and the sections below describe the works in each area in more detail.

 

An aerial photo of Carlisle during flooding

 


 

Map

Details of the works planned for each of these areas can be found in the ‘Area’ sections in the left hand side menu of this page.

A map showing the 10 areas of the Carlisle Phase 2 flood scheme

 


 

Programme

The Environment Agency started construction work on phase 2 of the Carlisle Flood Risk Management Scheme in August 2020 and the scheme was watertight by the end of April 2021. The table below provides some key dates.

Milestone Date Status
Receive funding approval to construct phase 2 of the Carlisle Flood Risk Management Scheme. Late July 2020 Complete
Submit planning application for four specific areas of construction. Late August 2020 Complete
Set up construction compounds in the Swifts car park and Bitts car park and prepare construction sites. Early August 2020 Complete
Start construction work*. Late August 2020 Complete
Complete construction work and remove compounds. End of April 2021 Complete
Final testing, confirmatory surveys and resolving any outstanding issues. Autumn 2021 Ongoing

 

*Construction work started initially in a number of areas that did not require planning permission.