The Sturt Road rail bridge, Frimley Green, is a constant thorn in the side of residents who use the bridge, especially those who walk through it.
I am aware that there has been some work done by Network Rail to address this issue and they are working with the local drainage engineer at the council.
Frimley Green Borough Councillor Stuart Black wrote to network rail in March to get an understanding of the position and they wrote back as follows:
"As you’re aware this is a longstanding issue with some relatively complex interactions.
"Hopefully a few notes below help show the completed and ongoing work by both Network Rail and Surrey Heath/Surrey County Council in alleviating the issues.
"NR have proven the syphon (highlighted yellow below) and formalised the outfall of this.
"NR have uncovered and proven pits linking highways gullies (highlighted) in green to outfall on NR land.
"Surrey CC are aware of the assets under the bridge and have jetted these to clear the system.
"NR have cleared both the ditch (orange arrows) and piped (blue arrows) systems circled in red to improve flow and clear blockages.
"Further works planned next financial year to spot repair culvert to the North of the railway (highlighted blue) – note; this is not preventing water flowing currently.
"There is a system under Bartlett place (not NR owned – Thames Water/landowner) that helps drain the northern section of under Sturt Road bridge (blue dashed line).
"More widely SHBC Drainage Engineer is leading on development of a scheme (circled blue to right) that will intercept water from the railway at outfall and pump this out to the Basingstoke Canal.
"This will reduce the amount of water heading towards Sturt Road and in theory reduce the contribution longer term towards flooding.
"Note; this is linked in to funding from the residential development on the site of the Mitie land to the west of Sturt Road.
"In theory, the proposed drainage for the new residential site will encompass and attenuate the flows from the land (with less water out on to the frontages of Sturt Road)."
There has been a lot of cross-organisational work on this issue and this continues.
I have written to the Surrey County Council team working on this for additional jetwashes and I will, of course, update residents once I hear when these have been done.
Cllr Black is in close contact with the SHBC Drainage engineer who is keeping him updated with progress and I want to thank Cllr Black for keeping on top of this issue on behalf of residents.
I have included the diagram provided by Network Rail and referred to above.
- Cllr. Paul Deach
County Councillor for Frimley Green and Mytchett
Further information on the flood alleviation scheme can be found here: Sturt Road Flood Alleviation Scheme
