Revetment Protection
1998
River Serven, Gloucestershire
Environment Agency
Environment Agency
Environment Agency
SSSI Site – River Severn Estuary
Existing scour line
Newly installed Reno mattress / Geomac
SSSI established in the Geomac
Problem
A 200m stretch of the river Severn in Gloucestershire had suffered acute erosion along the high tide line. This flood bank had already been protected with stone cladding, which unfortunately had not offered sufficient erosion protection. The mud flats in front of the flood bank are designated an SSSI which meant that engineered solutions required special consideration.
Solution
As the erosion was acute, there would be no way that a soil-bioengineering solution alone (coir logs, root balls, riparian wattles etc) would offer sufficient erosion protection. Therefore, Maccaferri Ltd proposed an integrated design using stone-filled Reno Mattress base units made from double-twisted hexagonal wire mesh. These units were laced together and filled with suitable stones. To accelerate the growth of vegetation, the soil was then brushed in to fill the voids and to hide the stone surface this solution is also called Geomac.