Reservoir rebuild delayed by wet weather

Work to rebuild a reservoir that almost collapsed, leading to a whole town being evacuated, is taking longer than expected due to wet weather.

Emergency services ordered residents to leave 1,500 homes in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, in August 2019, over fears water from Toddbrook Reservoir could flood the town after its spillway became damaged.

A rebuild is under way but the Canal and River Trust said poor ground conditions had slowed construction work.

Local residents have been invited to see what progress has been made at open days being held in July.

In 2019, heavy rain caused a large section of this spillway to fall away and there were fears the whole structure could collapse.

An RAF Chinook was needed to drop 400 tonnes of aggregates to shore up the reservoir before residents were allowed home almost a week later.

The reservoir has been re-designed and a new spillway is being built, to take away excess water, to the side of the dam wall rather than in front of it.

When the main construction phase is finished, turrets in the Memorial Park, part of the reservoir’s new design, will be sandblasted with artwork created as part of a community art project by artist Tom Edwards.

Dilwyn Parry, Toddbrook project manager for the Canal and River Trust, said the re-building work was taking longer than expected.

He said: “Many thanks to residents for their continuing patience. We are now expecting the main reservoir restoration work to be finished by summer 2025.

“This will be followed by demobilisation of the construction site, building the new sailing club and extensive landscaping to return Toddbrook Reservoir and Memorial Park back to public use.

"The entire project is likely to be finished around autumn 2025."

He added: “We recognise this is later than hoped for, as set out in our original anticipated construction programme.

"Prolonged wet weather and difficult ground conditions have both proved challenging.

"Thankfully future works are mainly above ground, so it may be possible to make up lost time.

“We are expecting the reservoir to refill naturally over the winter of 2025-26 and then hopefully be available again for public sailing, angling and other recreational activities from spring 2026.”

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