Skelton Clough

ACE replaced timber mitre doors and a penstock at Skelton near Goole on a tidal stretch of the Rover Ouse.

The brick asset was originally constructed in the 1700’s (we couldn’t see exactly what year as the third number chiselled into the masonry is no longer legible).

The old section of the culvert had clearly been extended at a much later date (our guess is the 1960’s or 1970s) and furnished with timber pointing doors which sat below a fixed timber facia that covered the arch. The landward side of the structure contained the second line of flood defence in the form of a timber penstock, although as it only sealed on three sides it is likely this was only used for flushing the pointing doors rather than keeping the River Ouze out of the drain or clough as they are locally known and off the surrounding arable land.

The timber pointing doors were on the brink of failure and therefore the Ouse and Humber Drainage Board were eager, primarily to shutter the doors off and keep the Ouse from entering the drain and secondly to provide a long-term solution.

Aquatic Control Engineering (ACE) visited the site soon after receiving the call and worked with a local contractor to quickly erect a timber and steel dam on the tidal side of the asset. Along the base of the dam ACE installed 6No 400mm HDPE flap valves to allow the clough to drain at low tide as the side hung doors usually would have.

ACE then set about surveying the structure and assessing different ways of installing a long-term solution.

This is the fourth of these cloughs along the Ouse that ACE have delivered special solutions for and in several ways the most challenging. The previous timber solution obstructed good access to all the masonry making it difficult to measure up the civils with 100% accuracy and meant any solution we were to deliver needed some flexibility in its design. The timber facia was also not perpendicular with the archway and any new facia would need something to bridge the gap between the facia material and the arch.

The base of the culvert was also entirely constructed from timber, and a new sill was cast in for the new HDPE flapvalve and stainless penstock to seal against.

ACE as principal contractor worked closely with the Ouse and Humber Drainage board and our partners Sweeting Bros to create innovative solutions and a fantastic finished project that will protect the local community and arable land for the foreseeable future.