Working closely with the University of Salford, the Environment Agency and City Council scheme will create a flood basin on land north of the Castle Irwell Student Village to protect 1400 homes and 500 businesses in Lower Broughton and Lower Kersal.
The scheme will work by storing flood water on the existing Castle Irwell playing fields and public open space. The new basin will work with the existing similar storage area at Littleton Road (Salford Sports Village).
To create enough space to store the water, the 28 hectare (280,000m2 or 70 acre) area will be excavated and the material will be used to construct a 3 metre high embankment around the site.
This will minimise the amount of imported material required to create the embankments, reducing the number of additional vehicle movements on the surrounding road network and reducing the cost of the scheme. The existing pitches will be reinstated with an improved drainage system so that they can be brought back into use more quickly if they are flooded.
The pitches currently suffer from flooding approximately once every five to ten years; following the construction this will reduce to approximately once every 25 years.
A new habitat area with improved footpaths for community use will be created in the northern part of the basin, with a small hill (referred to as a knoll in the Planning application) to provide views across the site.
By raising the embankment around the site, the Environment Agency intends to make best use of the capacity of the River Irwell through Salford. Water will flow downstream without flowing into the basin until the river is almost full.
At this point, water will begin to flow over a low point in the embankment and into the storage area. The two flood storage areas together will store the water which would otherwise cause flooding through parts of Lower Broughton and Lower Kersal.
The scheme will cost around £12m with most of the funding coming from government grants and a contribution from Salford City Council.
Flood Risk Manager for the Environment Agency, Mark Garratt, said: “This scheme is a great example of how, by working together, we can bring added benefits to a local community whilst developing a scheme to reduce flood risk. This scheme will protect local homes and businesses and provide benefits for people and wildlife in the area”.
Councillor Derek Antrobus, assistant mayor for strategic planning, Salford City Council, said:
“This scheme is a great example of public sector collaboration. It is also a great example of community involvement with a tremendous new wetland opened to the public with a network of pathways and cycle ways.
