A TOWN centre flood alleviation scheme in has won a prestigious civil engineering award at the 30th Institution of Civil Engineers Robert Stephenson Awards.

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has announced that Chester-le-Street Flood Alleviation Scheme won the medium category Robert Stephenson Award, which is for projects of a value between £1 and £5 million.

The annual ceremony sponsored by CDM Recruitment took place online on Friday, April 23, and saw ten shortlisted projects battle it out for the small, medium and large Robert Stephenson Award.

To mark 30 years of the awards a special anniversary award was also presented.

Chester-le-Street has a long history of flooding and in June 2012, more than 100 homes and businesses at the northern end of the town were affected by floodwaters.

Durham County Council started working together with the Environment Agency to come up with a solution.

The solution was the Chester-le-Street Flood Alleviation Scheme, which involved three phases of work in the heart of the town centre.

The project team included Durham County Council, Elvet Construction Consultants, Pell Frischmann and Esh Construction’s civil engineering division.

Steve Conn, Divisional Director at Esh Construction said: “Being recognised by the ICE in the 30th Robert Stephenson Awards is a fantastic achievement for everyone involved.

“It is important to celebrate the hard work and determination that goes into such projects, particularly throughout a year which presented difficulties that no one ever could have planned for.

“While providing vital flood prevention for residents and businesses, economic analysis has identified that this project will achieve approximately £21 million of whole life economic benefits over the next 50 years.”

The awards are held annually to showcase the outstanding work done during the past year by civil engineers in the North East Region.

They are divided into three categories; projects with a cost in excess of £5 million will compete for the Large Award, those between £1 million and £5 million can apply for the Medium Award, and those projects of a value under £1m can enter the Small Award.

The scheme was one of five projects in the running for the medium category award.

A Highly Commended Award went to Marton West Beck Flood Alleviation scheme in Middlesbrough.

Steena Nasapen-Watson, ICE North East Regional director said: “This project has really captured everyone’s imagination, in terms of what can be achieved through collaborative working, not only for wildlife but also the local community, as well as longer term prevention against future flooding.

“Well done to the project team.”

The medium category Robert Stephenson Award in 2020 went to Northern Gateway, A Sunderland Council scheme delivered together with Waterman Aspen, AECOM and WSP.

The STEM Ambassador of the Year Award was presented to Paula McMahon.