00:00 So the stage we're at just now and the reason for this event today is to help
00:05 inform the local community about where we are with the process and
00:09 particularly the next step of that legal process that we need to go into. So in a
00:14 few weeks time we will begin what's formally known as scheme notification
00:18 when there will be a group of the local community and will be formally notified
00:23 with letters through the door and the wider community will also understand
00:27 what's proposed through not only the event today but information that
00:32 will be on the project website. The timelines for that, the notification
00:38 process itself depends on the level of objections we get so if it goes through
00:43 really well and there are very few objections it could be reasonably quick
00:47 by towards the end of this calendar year or early next calendar year but if the
00:52 council make a preliminary decision and that's then referred to Scottish
00:55 ministers it could quite easily be two or three years beyond that before a
00:59 final decision is made. So construction of the project is unlikely to happen
01:04 before 2026 at the earliest. Once we do start construction process it would be a
01:11 phased approach and we'd be keen to look at the residential communities first and
01:16 start from the town and work our way down towards the coast. So you know the
01:23 construction phase will take six, seven, eight years probably depending on how
01:27 it's phased but it will be managed so that the disruption on local communities is
01:32 minimized and we're likely to start as I said at the more residential
01:37 and community side of things before moving down towards the port. Yeah I mean
01:41 there's a number of flood defences proposed and not just in Grangemouth
01:46 town but upstream and those main watercourses, the Avon and the
01:50 Karen and further upstream in the Grangeburn. So there's a number of areas
01:54 where flood walls and embankments would be constructed and flood walls can
01:58 contain sheet piles that go down into the ground to give that strong
02:02 foundation and typically above ground is a smaller concrete wall and some
02:08 places the walls might have stone cladding or might be a formed concrete
02:12 and so that all the information on what's proposed for the different areas
02:16 is contained on the boards that we've got with these events and also on the
02:20 scheme website. Right now we've got two thousand seven hundred and sixty
02:23 residential properties at risk of flooding. There's also twelve hundred
02:28 non-residential properties, commercial businesses that are at risk of flooding.
02:31 So that's almost four thousand properties in the local area that are
02:35 currently at risk and because of where we sit beside the fourth estuary you've
02:39 got a risk of tidal flood risk but you've also got three main watercourses
02:43 that come down through Grangemouth. So along the Cairn, Avon and the Grangeburn
02:47 there's a Flueville flood risk from storm events over the hills and all that
02:51 flood water coming down through the town. So it's actually a really complex
02:54 picture between the Flueville flood risk in the rivers and the coastal
02:59 flood risk from the tides and the different areas will put the
03:05 improvements we've got proposed will protect from both of those elements. So
03:09 it depends where you sit, what type of defences are required, the extent of
03:13 those defences and obviously it's a mammoth project. In total there's
03:18 about 17 kilometres of defences that are, sorry 17 miles of defences that are
03:24 proposed and those stretch from Stirling Road at the bus depot all the way down
03:30 to the port.
03:32 [no audio]
03:42 Jacobs has been involved in projects much larger than this across the
03:48 world in terms of the UK and looking specifically at flood
03:53 management projects. We've been involved in probably the larger
03:58 schemes specifically in Scotland such as the Hawick flood protection scheme
04:03 that's under construction just now, Selkirk also on the borders and the
04:09 white cart scheme for Glasgow City Council which was completed a number of
04:13 years ago and has already saved properties from
04:17 millions of pounds worth of flood damage. I think that the size of this project
04:23 sets it aside from other schemes in Scotland. We've got
04:29 almost 28 kilometres of flood defences proposed. Probably the other larger
04:35 schemes in Scotland have probably been about six or seven kilometres so it's
04:39 four or five times as big as any other scheme that's been done to date.
04:43 I think everything just takes time so the development of the
04:50 project is something that will take years, the design will also take
04:54 years and also the implementation of the project is probably something that
04:59 will take place over eight to ten years.
05:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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