Dawlish sea wall: Barge with legs to start work

The wavewalker barge can be raised an lowers on its legs to operate in environments with large tidal ranges like the south Devon coast.

A barge on legs will help construct an £80m sea wall to protect a rail line previously destroyed by storms.

The eight-legged, self-contained walking barge, known as a Wavewalker, is the only one of its kind in Europe.

Work at Dawlish, south Devon, marks the first time this type of barge has been used to maintain the UK rail network.

In 2014, a storm caused a stretch of the coastal railway to collapse into the sea - cutting off the south west peninsular from the rest of the line.

The sea wall at Dawlish was destroyed by high tides and stormy seas in 2014

The jack-up barge can be raised or lowered for work in challenging environments and allows workers to operate safely and for longer, engineers said.

Huw Jones, from civil engineering firm BAM Nuttall who will operate the barge, said the railway line was "enormously exposed to the worst weather that the English Channel can produce".

He said: "Working in this environment requires imaginative solutions and innovative thinking and our use of the Wavewalker is a great example of that.

"The jack-up barge allows us to work safely on the foundations of a new sea-wall on a 24-7 basis, regardless of tides."

Network Rail said the construction of the new sea wall will take around two years to complete

The barge will allow workers to operate more safely and for longer hours in challenging conditions