Flood scheme's tunnel work starts

Ross-on-Wye was badly hit in last summer's flooding

A giant boring machine is arriving in a Herefordshire town as part of a £7m scheme to prevent future flooding.

The machine will be in Ross-on-Wye to dig a 1148ft (350m) long tunnel to divert excess water.

Earth from the tunnel will be used to create a 5.6ft (1.7m) high earth bund to the east of the A40 to absorb water when river levels are high.

The scheme has been planned since the floods in 2000. The town was also badly flooded last summer.

The tunnel will start from Horns Road car park and will finish in the Kings Acre car park.

Engineer Ken Henderson, who works on the Channel Tunnel, will be overseeing the tunnelling project, which is expected to be finished by April.

He will be in charge of digging out the tunnel using the 60-tonne machine which has a 2m (6.6ft) diameter.

The whole flood alleviation scheme is expected to be completed by July.

Herefordshire Council highways spokesman Brian Wilcox said: "Creating this tunnel will be one of the most exciting stages of the flood alleviation scheme and will show people what a major feat of engineering the whole project is."