Leeds £50m flood alleviation scheme opens

The £50m scheme consists of two weirs, located in the centre of Leeds at Crown Point and further upstream on the River Aire at Knostrop, where a new bridge connects the diverted Trans Pennine Trail — a popular walking and cycling route — on top the north bank of the river.

“We’ve provided 36 separate zones of the linear works up through the city centre. The project’s main innovation is the moveable weirs, controlled by air bladders,” commented Andy Judson, project manager for engineering firm BAM Nuttall, which delivered the scheme in a joint venture with Mott McDonald. “We’ve had a really strong ‘one team’ ethos on this project. We’ve all been co-located and understood that by working together, we would get the job finished on time and on budget. We estimated that there are around 125,000 people who have live or work within sight of the project, so there are an awful lot of stakeholders and an awful lot of careful management that has gone into looking after people.”