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00:00 It's 10 years since a devastating storm struck the town of Dawlish on the Devon Coast on 4 February 2014.
00:10 The railway was battered by waves leaving the tracks hanging in mid-air and severing the south-west from the rest of the country for 8 weeks.
00:19 Our team battled around the clock to carry out major repairs and with the breach fixed,
00:24 we began to plan how we could better protect this vital stretch of railway from climate change and extreme weather.
00:31 The South West Rail Resilience Programme was born and over the past decade,
00:35 the Department for Transport has invested more than £165 million to better protect the railway between Dawlish and Tynmouth.
00:44 Our first task was to build a taller, stronger 800m sea wall and new high-level promenade at Dawlish.
00:51 The first phase opened in 2020 with the curved edge of the design deflecting the waves back out to sea.
00:58 The second phase, which wraps around Dawlish Station, saw the arrival of an innovative 8-leg jackup barge known as a Wave Walker,
01:06 which allowed our teams to work around the tides. This phase was officially opened in July 2023.
01:15 As part of the Dawlish project, the station is now fully accessible for the first time thanks to our new footbridge with lifts.
01:22 Along the coast near Holcombe, we've built a striking 109m rockfall shelter designed to stop material from the cliffs falling onto the track.
01:32 The 185 precast concrete sections were mostly lifted in at night using a special gantry crane.
01:41 In summer 2023, we began installing 19,700m2 of netting, secured by more than 6,000 soil nails, to help stabilise the cliffs between Dawlish and Holcombe.
01:53 And our work here continues.
01:55 We're now looking to the future, with investigations underway into how we can make the railway between Parsons Tunnel and Tynmouth more resilient without moving the track away from the cliffs.
02:08 All this work will reduce delays and disruption for passengers and help protect this iconic stretch of railway for generations to come.
02:16 (upbeat music)