Civil engineering and infrastructure specialist Barhale has won three flood defence improvement contracts totalling £7.5 million from National Grid.

The three schemes will uprate the protection of electricity substations at Waltham Cross (400/275 kV substation) and West Weybridge (400kV substation and 132 kV substation). They have been awarded as part of National Grid’s Substation Flood Defence Framework which aims to improve the resilience of the electricity transmission power network to flooding.

Construction of the upgraded defences will provide new, taller reinforced concrete walls and, at West Weybridge 400 kV substation, an innovative approach will use steel sheet piling to deliver both rapid installation and a reduced carbon footprint.

Barhale’s regional director Phil Cull underlined the importance of the schemes as climate change is expected to increase flood risk in the UK, increasing the intensity and frequency of flooding events.

“In recent years we have seen a number of significant floods,” he said. “These can have a huge impact such as we saw with the floods of summer 2007 which disrupted essential services and are estimated to have left a bill of £3.2 billion.

“The scheme at Waltham Cross and the two at West Weybridge will significantly improve the transmission network’s resilience, reducing the odds of flood disruption at each of these sites to that of a one in a thousand year event.”