HMRC Shipley

Boxing day 2015 saw a deluge of floods hit the north east of England.

One of the most prominent rivers to burst its banks was the River Aire in West Yorkshire, which caused severe flooding in Leeds and the surrounding area.  Amongst the places worst hit was the historic market town of Shipley, home to a large office of the UK government’s tax collection authority, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), with over 900 civil servants employed at the location.  The inundation caused the site to temporarily close, resulting in delays to various tax-related services across the country.

Our guidance at an early stage can help shape a flood defence project, ensuring a fit-for-purpose and value-engineered solution.

Once the flood remedial works were completed, a plan was set in motion to reduce the future flood risk of the site. The flood defence design concept utilised a reinforced concrete flood wall around multiple locations of the site with a selection of gates and doors installed to provide access to the site.

MMEngineering were commissioned initially only to provide the specialist flood defence products. However midway through the project, we were asked to lend our expertise to improve the structural design of the flood wall.

The initial flood wall design had failed to take a number of critical structural factors into consideration.  As a result it would have been unable to withstand the weight of flood water during a flood event.  Our structural engineer calculated the various loading factors the wall was required to withstand, including the hydrostatic pressure caused by a flood, point loadings from simulated debris impacts and bending moments from flood gate open and close cycles.  Using these calculations we redesigned the wall to withstand the predicted forces and provide an impenetrable defence against the future flood events.

A civil contractor constructed the flood wall and MMEngineering installed the flood defence products over a multi-visit installation programme. The site is now fully operational and protected from flooding.