DETAILS have emerged this week of the extensive engineering and construction works involved in the much-vaunted £31million Selkirk Flood Protection Scheme.

The project, which was launched in 2009 and will take just over two years to complete, is due to get under way this autumn.

Scottish Borders Council has already spent around £2million progressing the scheme through a series of expert technical studies on how to reduce the risk of devastation for 450 homes and 150 business in Selkirk and the Yarrow valley.

In April came the news that the Scottish Government would underwrite 80 per cent of the total costs and the council has now moved to the procurement process for the main works which are estimated to cost £22.7million, excluding VAT.

Bidders have until noon on June 9 to submit tenders for the work which will control the level of the Ettrick Water as it flows through the town and regulate its fast flowing tributaries.

To achieve this – and reduce the risk of flooding to a one-in-500 year event – major works are required, including improving the storage capabilities of St Mary’s Loch.

Other key elements include: Raising 200m of the A708 Selkirk to Moffat road; construction of 2.9km of imported fill flood defence embankments; construction of 3.1km of reinforced concrete flood defence walls; construction of 380m of sheet pile retaining wall in dense, gravelly soil; provision of 720m of erosion protection on the banks of the Ettrick; provision of 3km of seepage protection up to eight metres below ground level; demolition of two masonry arch vehicle bridges and the construction of a new reinforced concrete road bridge at the junction of the A707 and A708; and the demolition of the six span pedestrian bridge and its permanent replacement with an 84m long three span structure with two concrete piers.

Although the most famous flood in Selkirk occurred in 1977, when the stane brig over the Ettrick was spectacularly washed away, it was the notorious events of May, 2003 and August ,2004, when severe flash flooding inundated hundreds of homes in the town’sBannerfield estate.