Weston-Super-Mare stepped up its defences of the Grand Pier.

The town’s landmark attraction was destroyed by a huge fire back in 2008 but was reopened following a £51million regeneration.

As part of the restoration process the entire surrounding area has also been redeveloped and improved.

And diamond drilling and sawing specialists, D-Drill, based in Coventry and with 8 offices nationwide, has played a pivotal role.

“We were brought in to reinforce the sea defence wall as part of the complete overhaul of the complex.

“Due to the poor state of the existing wall conventional drilling methods could have weakened the wall beyond repair so diamond drilling was deemed the most effective method.

“We had to drill over 9,500 holes, a metre and a half into it so that we could insert a reinforcement bar which runs virtually all the way around.”

Due to the efficiency with which D-Drill completed this complicated task, their services were retained to work on other areas of the project.

“Now we are working on all manner of jobs from strengthening new signposts, to reinforcing separate splash walls and erecting archways imported from China,” Site Supervisor added.

“We are currently installing a flood defence system known as a Dutch dam. This is a manual flood defence mechanism which is housed by trench seven or eight metres behind the sea wall.

“It is about 30m long and can be lifted up manually whenever floods threaten.”

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