Flood Barriers Control Flood Water for Katherine

The Northern Territory Government’s Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics have successfully completed the Katherine Flood Mitigation Project.

Initial flood modelling identified that construction of flood mitigation works, including levee bank construction and upgraded drainage systems, were the most effective way of reducing flood impact on Katherine properties.

The $10 million project, jointly funded by the Australian and Northern Territory governments, will increase the towns flood resilience, providing flood protection for residential, commercial and community areas.

AWMA was engaged to supply FloodFree Demountable Barriers to protect levee access points, as well as Flap Gates to facilitate stormwater drainage and backflow prevention during flood events.

Demountable Flood Barriers (DFB) are often manually installed to protect places where there are breaks in levees for roads, railway lines or pedestrian crossings. The DFB flood levee extensions provided for this project are 20m, 25m and 45m in length and situated in locations such as across Katherine’s Stuart Highway, NT.

Demountable flood barriers have end posts and inground footings permanently installed. Upon the threat of a flood event, a storage rack of barrier segments is brought to the site and manually installed to complete the levee across designated road crossings.

AWMA was also engaged to design and manufacture 86 aluminium Flap Gates for this project. Flap gates provide a dual function; protecting the township by preventing floodwater from passing up the stormwater drains under the levee, while also allowing stormwater from the township to discharge to the river during normal wet weather events.