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From Times Online
January 11, 2005

Biggest engineering feat to stop Thames flood

By Steve Bird

PROPOSALS for a ten-mile barrier across the River Thames to prevent it flooding were unveiled yesterday.

The vast embankment, from Sheerness in Kent to Southend on the other side of the estuary in Essex, would be the biggest engineering project Britain has seen. The scheme has been proposed by experts on climate change who believe that much of Central London could soon be submerged if flood waters continue to rise.

Scientists believe that the existing Thames Barrier, built in the 1970s, could be breached, leaving Westminster in 6ft of flood water.

Under the scheme, the barrier would contain gates to allow water to flow in and out of the Thames Estuary according to the tides. But the gates would be shut if a flood seemed likely.

Jim Hall, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, an author of the proposals, said: “We wanted to look at the more extreme but still plausible scenarios for sea level rise. The chances of these happening are small but the consequences are so dramatic that we have to prepare for them.”

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