ON time, according to plan and within budget, Watchet harbour’s £825,000 sea wall rebuilding project is finally within nine weeks of completion after five months of setbacks and delay caused by the weather and the coronavirus.

Somerset West and Taunton Council borrowed over £1 million to pay for a new wall after winter gales tore two massive breaches in the 150-year-old original structure and emergency work using 700 tons of stone, was destroyed in January and February by Storm Clara and Storm Dennis, which threatened to engulf the town.

Plans for a permanent replacement sea wall were put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic and work finally started three weeks ago when specialist teams began clearing out material used in the emergency repairs and beginning to build a new wall designed to absorb the power of tidal impact ad take into account future rises in sea level.

This consists of square-shaped structures usually used for drainage, filled with concrete and anchored to the bedrock with steel rods to provide the permanent finish to the wall.

“We are really pleased with the progress. Everything is on schedule,” a district council spokesman said this week. “We are hopeful of finishing the work within nine weeks, which will mean the area will be opened up to the public once more well before Christmas.

“It has been a long hard job beset with every sort of problem but we have pulled through and the result will be a really first class job.”

Read the full story with photos in tomorrow’s Free Press.