Eagle Pond, East London Reservoir Safety Works
Project : Reservoir Safety Works
Client : Corporation of London
Date of Services : 2011 to 2014
Scope of work
- Feasibility study of options to increase spillway capacity
- Inclusive stakeholder engagement including consultation meetings
- Support to environmental and planning consultants to provide a coordinated service
- Detailed design and production of tender documents
- Reservoir Act 'Qualified Civil Engineer' supervision of the design and construction and certification of the completed works
Project description
Eagle Pond is a 40,000m³ reservoir retained by a 4m high dam in East London, built dating back to the early 1700s. The reservoir is now owned by the Corporation of London. Being in an urban area, the reservoir is considered to be high risk in terms of the consequences of failure.
The project was to implement a recommendation in the interests of safety, from a Section 10 inspection report under the Reservoirs Act 1975, to increase the spillway capacity to pass the Probable Maximum Flood. The project was complicated as the dam is in an area of woodland in Snaresbrook conservation area, well used by the public, and in the grounds of a crown court.
The scheme comprised the installation of a line of sheet piles along the upstream face of the dam crest and raising the side walls of the existing concrete spillway. The scale of spillway enlargement was optimised by using an existing sheet pile wall along the side of the reservoir as an auxiliary spillway, designed to spill on to a road pavement for floods in excess of 1 in 1000 chance per year. Improved landscaping sympathetic to the woodland setting was achieved by cladding the new sheet piles in timber and with coir rolls at the normal waterline to encourage a vegetation screen along the upstream face of the dam.
