Construction of the Barra Riverbank Protection Scheme.
The project was located at the Barra Airport runway river within the bay of Tràigh Mhòr at the northern tip of the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides.
Before the works commenced, a river emerged from a culvert located underneath the road adjacent to Barra Airport and naturally flowed across the shore over one of the airport runways which had been diverted to run parallel to the road. This had predominantly been maintained through the use of dredging, sandbags, cement bags, and some loose rock. While this had some success in building up a riverbank, there was significant washout from waves which resulted in the riverbank breaching in various locations and there was further maintenance needed. Consequently, dredging would have been required approximately 6 to 8 times per year.
MIB role was to provide improved sediment build up along the riverbank and provide increased resistance to washout from waves via the installation of a rock armour geotextile solution. The completed works will allow the bank to quickly reform following any washout events, and the geotextile within the rock armour will help restrict water flow through the rock armour prior to the reforming of the sediment bank.
