Thames Barrier
Lying around two miles east of the 02 Stadium, the Thames Barrier is the world's largest movable flood barrier. It stretches a third of a mile across the Thames River and was designed for the Greater London Council by Rendel, Palmer and Tritton.
With tide levels steadily increasing and the chance of high surges reaching the Straits of Dover and entering the Thames Estuary, there could be a real flood danger along most of the tidal Thames. The site at Woolwich was chosen because the underlying river chalk was strong enough to support the structure and the banks are quite straight at this point.
Work on the barrier started in 1974 and took ten years to complete. Total construction cost was around £534 million and the cost of operating and maintaining the Barrier and the associated defences is approximately £6 million a year, with over 80 staff operating and maintaining the barrier.
The four main gates comprising the barrier are each as high as a five-storey building and when there are high tides, with high waves caused by storms, the gates are lifted to stop water travelling up the Thames Estuary.
This is a massive construction and worth a visit to admire a very impressive work of engineering.
The Information Centre is open to the public, offering a working model of the Barrier and a video that shows its construction, operation and how it protects London from flooding.
Oct - Mar 11:00 - 15:30
