Long-term solution to flooding Maidenhead underpass would come at 'significant cost'

A rebuilding project is the only long-term solution to tackle ‘nightmare’ flooding on the A4 St Cloud Way underpass, councillors have been warned.

The underpass has been subject to constant flooding over the years, and it was temporarily closed once again last week after the Royal Borough’s flood risk manager deemed it unsafe.

At a Maidenhead Town Forum meeting on Thursday (September 11), the flood risk manager, Ben Crampin, updated councillors and residents – and warned the long-term solution for the underpass was a project the council cannot afford.

Mr Crampin said: “There are issues with the work that was previously done to fix it.

"To stop it from happening, we would have to rebuild that entire section of the footway and the wall.

“This would have very significant costs to the council and that’s not something that currently we have funding for within current budgets.”

A number of attempts have been made to keep the path dry after constant flooding issues.

Last year, an electricity supply was reconnected to a pump to remove the water, but work had to be carried out in the summer after the pump stopped working.

Despite the fix, Cllr Richard Coe (Lib Dem, Riverside) warned a town forum meeting in July that is ‘likely that the path will still be flooding’ due to the volume of water leaking through a red brick wall.

Last week, councillors heard algae growth has also been blocking the drainage system, and water is continuing to leak through the brick wall.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Crampin said: “This algae growth is still happening.

“I went down there on Wednesday (September 10), it’s very slippery. So, we’ve barred it off to stop people from getting down there.”

He said he is working with the public rights of way team, who attempted to put absorbing gravel on the footway to get rid of some of the water. But this solution ‘hasn’t worked particularly well’, he said.

Councillors said the work on the underpass should have been done properly from the beginning, but Mr Crampin said he did not know why this was not the case.

Councillor Catherine del Campo (Lib Dem, Furze Platt) said: “It all seems a bit of a nightmare really and a long-running saga.”

Cllr Jack Douglas (Lib Dem, St Mary’s) said that rerouting the public right of way was also ‘a nightmare’.

The underpass forms part of the Green Way route between Cookham and Maidenhead.

Cllr Douglas said: “The alternative, if we reroute this, it looks like a nightmare to me, especially for wheelchair users.

“The route around Sainsbury’s is nasty to be frank. I really wouldn’t want to be rerouting children and pushchairs around there.
“We’re kind of stuck between a hard rock and a hard place, I think.

“We’ve got to do whatever we can to get this fixed properly. Properly, not patched up, but fixed properly for the next generation.”

Cllr Clive Baskerville (Lib Dem, Pinkneys Green) asked if there was a way to ‘inhibit the algae growth’ in the area.

But Mr Crampin said cleaning the underpass regularly and finding the funds to properly fix the stretch are the only solution.

He said: “Unfortunately because [the underpass] sits next to the watercourse, we are quite heavily restricted on what we can put in there.

“Otherwise, we would potentially be polluting the watercourse and causing damage there.”