Freiston Shore realignment

Along with much of the rest of the shoreline of the Wash the Freiston Shore has an earth embankment enclosing saltmarsh (built between 1978 and 1982) which has subsequently been drained and converted to agricultural use. The bank also protects the hinterland from flooding. During construction the bank failed several times and even when it was completed it came near to failure. The absence of saltmarsh in front of the sea wall meant that wave attack was unhindered and severe erosion took place in 1996. These factors combined to suggest that this would be a suitable place for an experimental realignment scheme.

In assessing the Freiston Shore managed realignment scheme the Environment Agency (responsible for flood and coastal defence) took a number of factors into account. Sea defences along the Lincolnshire coast in the vicinity of Freiston Shore protect 80,000ha of low-lying land, much of it 3m or more below tidal surge levels. A scheme was proposed which involved the realignment of the 1982 embankment, building a new sea wall and strengthening the existing forward defence (see Figure opposite).

Caption: Location of the Freiston Shore managed realignment scheme in the south west corner of the Wash, east of Boston. The forward sea defence prior to breaching is shown by the thick black line. The dotted line represents the approximate limit of the saltmarsh edge.