Breach in the sea wall
RSPB
Coastal Realignment
Two 20m breaches in the sea wall were created over two days to allow the tides to come into the area. The secondary sea wall behind the field was raised to 1 in 50 year predicted storm surge height, before the breaches were dug. Other required engineering works, specifically the blocking of culverts to a drainage channel behind the sea wall were also undertaken from the recommendations of the “design and impacts study”.
Prior to the 1950s when the sea wall (that was breached in 2003) was built, the area encompassing “Meddat Marsh Field” was a coastal wetland area. Indeed an Ordnance Survey map form 1872 showed that there appeared to have been some mudflat as well as saltmarsh (shown as ‘liable to floods’ on the map) in that field. Furthermore, prior to the scheme, the field was hard to keep dry and as it had not been ploughed, much of the topography (including relict saltmarsh creeks) was still present.
The Nigg Bay project was the first of its kind in Scotland and therefore there was no experience of the consents required, or the processes required for securing those consents, under the Scottish system. Consequently, the RSPB drew up a long list of potential regulations affected and the relevant agencies were consulted.