Nuriootpa residents can now place their trust within unique flood mitigation infrastructure – designed to prevent flood damage to the township in the event of a severe storm.
On Thursday, council staff joined at one of the five designated flood barriers sites to demonstrate the completed project, which includes removable wall components.
The innovative wall barriers replace the temporary earth mounds which were put in place during the last storm experienced in September 2016 and led to the flooding of the North Para River.
Barossa Council director of works and engineering Matt Elding explained how the five temporary wall barriers are about closing the open road way gaps which butt up to the existing masonry wall.
“The removable ‘post and stop log’ system is simple in design, lightweight, effective at withstanding extensive flood loads and easy to construct in a relatively short time when needed,” he said.
“The innovative design allows for its intuitive deployment without special skills,” he said, which means during an emergency a quick response can be made “and it maybe that emergency services or members of the community can assist with assembling”.
As demonstrated at the corner of Park and Memorial avenues, the first step is to remove the road plates to stop water from entering the holes and a rubber gasket put in place. A wall is then constructed much like a retaining wall with aluminium horizontal components installed on top of one another.
“We spent a lot of time on the design to try find something that was simple and all the posts are the same height, even thought the height of the wall varies across the different locations,” Mr Elding said.
The remaining five locations are located opposite Park Avenue, the other side of Memorial Avenue ford (near the swimming pool) and two are located on Penrice Road.
Mayor Bob Sloane, who was also on site with workmen on this week, shared how this is a unique system for Australia and has been talked about by the council for over 10 years.
“It will save a lot of houses a lot of damage,” he said.
Mr Sloane also thanked the team who worked on the project for their “tremendous effort”.
Michelle O’Rielly
