EJ McGrath Construction Ltd carried out the Levels 3 and 4 landing stage repairs at the Pier Head of Clevedon Pier in 2025 for the Clevedon Pier & Heritage Trust. The enquiry came in through Fenton Holloway Ltd, and we built the works to a design by Adam Magrill, their conservation-accredited engineer. Clevedon Pier is a Grade I listed Victorian pier on the Severn Estuary, one of very few Grade I listed piers in the country, so the job was as much about protecting the historic structure as making the landings sound again.

The brief

The two lower landing stages, right at the seaward end of the pier, had reached the end of their life. The timber decking to Levels 3 and 4 was weathered and decayed, with boards worn, gaps opening up between them and some planks already lost. The bearers underneath had rotted and the steel below needed cleaning and protecting. Our job was to strip the old decking back, renew the bearers and boards, prepare and paint the steel, and refix the deck, all without disturbing the original Victorian ironwork around it.

What we did

• Stripped out the old decking board by board across both the Level 3 and Level 4 landings.
• Prepared the tops of the steel beams to ISO St2 by hand and power tool cleaning, then put on two coats of Sigmashield 880 before any new timber went down.
• Fitted new recycled plastic lumber bearers, a rot-free material we use in permanently wet spots, bolted to the steel with M16 tension control bolts pre-loaded with a shear wrench and the torque recorded.
• Laid new strength-graded C24 timber deck boards, fixed down with A2 stainless steel coach screws recessed just below the surface.
• Kept and reused the original Victorian cast ironwork: the diamond-lattice grating, the balustrades and handrails, and the cast iron benches, which went back onto the finished deck.
• Kept full quality records throughout, including paint application record sheets and photo logs.
• Self-delivered all the labour, plant, supervision and temporary access, and took all waste away under our own licensed waste carrier status.

Working around the tide

This was full marine works from start to finish, and the whole programme was driven by the tide. The Severn Estuary has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world. Our supervisor planned the work a week at a time around the tide windows: tides above 7.6m overtop the Level 3 landing and tides above 11.1m overtop Level 4, so the lower deck was only reachable around low water. We never painted within seven hours of an overtopping tide, and we checked the forecast before any coating went on.

Getting down to the lower landings was a job in itself. The Trust removed a floor in the structure above so our team could reach them, and long lengths of timber and plastic board were lowered over the edge by hand as a two-man lift. We decked out a temporary platform in 25mm ply and worked directly over the water, at height, in full body harnesses clipped to beam-clamp anchor points with fall-arrest blocks, and self-inflating buoyancy aids on at all times.

The pier is Grade I listed and stays open to the public, so the work had to be conservation-sensitive and properly fenced off. We worked around the original cast iron grating, balustrades and trestle legs, and used a gated compound, a gateman and clear signage to keep visitors well away from the works.

The outcome

Both landing stages went back with new, safe decks and the pier’s Victorian character intact. The cast iron grating, balustrades and benches were reinstated as they were, sitting on new decking suited to a salt-water location: rot-free recycled plastic bearers below, strength-graded timber boards on top, all on freshly protected steel. It is another marine job for EJ McGrath at Clevedon, following our sea wall repairs at Clevedon Marine Lake.

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EJ McGrath’s role

EJ McGrath self-delivered both phases with our own teams, heritage lime-mortar masonry on one, intertidal concrete repair on the other, planning all access, plant and sequencing around the tide and continuous public use. Keeping the work in-house meant one team, one standard and clear accountability across two very different sets of skills.

Phase 1: the boundary retaining wall, masonry repairs

The first phase restored the historic sea wall at Poets Walk, a Victorian stone masonry structure dating from the creation of the Marine Lake. This was conservation work: bring the wall back to good order with traditional materials and methods, without losing its character.

• Re-pointed and repaired in NHL5 hydraulic lime mortar to match the original
• Replaced around 82 metres of coping and facing stone, like for like
• Made good roughly twenty missing stones
• Opened no more than ten metres of wall at any one time to keep the structure and the public safe
• Kept the promenade and Marine Lake open throughout, with no direct vehicle access, all materials and plant planned in carefully

Phase 2: Marine Lake seaward wall, concrete repairs

The second phase moved onto the seaward face of the Marine Lake itself, a 1920s concrete wall with a stone facing, where years of exposure had opened up voids across the face. We carried out repairs in Fosroc Renderoc HB45, working in the intertidal zone right at the water’s edge.

The defining challenge was the tide, and unusually, it came from both sides: the sea advancing across the beach in front, and water overtopping into the lake and back over the wall from behind on an offshore wind. With no easy way to reach the face, we engineered our way around it rather than forcing the programme:

• A floating pontoon with a fixed tether line run along the lake wall
• Custom-fabricated lightweight aluminium access platforms to reach every repair area safely
• Every shift planned against the tide tables, with the site supervisor adjusting daily to the actual weather, swell and sea state

Timing mattered as much to the quality of the concrete repair as to the safety of the team: catch a pour or a cure on the wrong tide and you lose the work. We didn’t.

Outcome

A sound, repaired wall, delivered on budget and ahead of programme. Across the two phases we brought heritage masonry and marine concrete repair together on the same stretch of Clevedon seafront: both flood-defence assets, both repaired in live, tidal, publicly used surroundings, and both self-delivered by our own teams. It’s the kind of constraint-led coastal work that keeps North Somerset Council bringing us back to the seafront.

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North Somerset Council appointed EJ McGrath as Principal Contractor, with AtkinsRéalis (Bristol) as contract administrator, for the refurbishment of Marine Lake on the Weston-super-Mare seafront, a tidal lake repaired and upgraded in a live, public marine environment. Repairs to the lake structures, intertidal concrete and the perimeter surfacing could only be progressed in the windows between tides, under a Marine Management Organisation (MMO) marine licence, to a fixed completion.

What we delivered

• Marine & intertidal concrete repairs: structural patch repairs to the lake structures, with new RC GGBS nosing and rear margins
• New RC slipway constructed on driven cased-pile foundations
• Drainage & utilities: new MDPE water mains, soil/waste stack, drainage and outfall connections
• Perimeter surfacing: polymer-modified asphalt laid to tight temperature control within a single window of low tides
• Building works: full refurbishment of two buildings (structural, M&E and finishes), including a fully modernised toilet block
• Externals & finishes: stainless and stone-stair handrails, cobble and portal reinstatement, and public-realm finishes
• Bespoke marine-grade fabrication: stainless-steel handrails, signage and bespoke gates

The challenge

A tidal lake on a live public seafront, with no margin for programme slip. Intertidal and surfacing works were limited to the windows between tides, with the polymer-modified asphalt needing tight temperature control to a fixed completion, all under an MMO marine licence with public access maintained throughout.

Our approach

Intertidal and surfacing operations were sequenced to the tide tables and continuously monitored and adjusted for wind, temperature and conditions. Public segregation was phased around the works, with daily tidal and weather briefings keeping the programme on track.

Safety, security & compliance

As Principal Contractor on a live seafront, we delivered under the MMO marine licence with full pollution-prevention controls and no environmental breaches recorded. Quality was ITP-led, with independent material testing alongside our own QA records.

Outcome

The refurbishment was completed and handed back in May 2026, with the surfacing independently tested and QA-evidenced to specification across every layer. The result, and our standing relationship with North Somerset Council, have since generated direct follow-on interest, including further Marine Lake works and the accessible ramp at Clevedon Marine Lake.

Huge thanks must go to the officers involved and our contractor EJ McGrath for completing the work in time for the second May bank holiday and start of the school holidays, despite the challenges of working in a marine environment.Cllr Mike Solomon, North Somerset Council

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The brief

Form a new launch ramp for craft using the marina, building around tidal water levels and public access to the quayside.

What we did

• Temporary dam installation to work in the dry
• Piling and reinforced concrete ground beams
• Reinforced concrete slabs
• Block walling
• Grasscrete surfacing
• Precast concrete steps

Working in a tidal environment

The ramp sits within the working marina, so the sequence had to be planned around tide levels, with the site left safe and secure between shifts.

The outcome

A completed slipway giving safe launch and recovery for boats using the marina.

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As part of the Weston sea defence scheme, a 1,300m length of the Victorian sea wall needed strengthening. We combined traditional masonry with modern engineering to extend its life while keeping its original character, reusing the original stone with less than 5% new material.

What we delivered

• Carefully dismantled the coping stones and both wall skins, retaining the stone for reuse
• Rebuilt both faces using the original stone, less than 5% new stone required, with a further 5% repaired on site, bedded in natural hydraulic lime mortar to match the original
• Fully grouted the wall cavity (up to 1,200mm deep in sections) in controlled stages to form a solid wall
• Drilled and resin-dowelled the original copings with marine-grade stainless steel bars, with longer bars grouted horizontally into the wall head to resist wave action
• Removed algae and moss growth and sympathetically repointed to retain the wall’s original appearance

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The brief

New reinforced concrete flood defence walls, steps and gates had to sit within a historic, heavily used quayside without looking new. Our job was to clad, pave and reinstate the public realm so the finished works matched the existing historic fabric, to the satisfaction of Exeter City Council’s planning authority.

What we did

• Sawn ashlar and limestone cladding, 180mm thick, to the new reinforced concrete flood defence walls, including the Quay Bridge abutments and the floodgate wall, with masonry coping and specialist wall ties to every course
• Specialist cut L-shaped quoins, and cladding cut into existing structures at the Cricklepit masonry sidewall
• Reinstatement of the historic Quay cobbles, reset in colour-matched mortar, including along the Drexus linear drainage line
• Replacement quayside paving folded to the specified levels and falls, with conservation paving slabs and granite setts
• New quayside steps formed in architectural precast units with an exposed granite aggregate finish
• Sealing the Drexus linear drainage channels and fitting lids
• Masonry cladding, paving and steps at Eagle Cottages and the Malt House
• Two 3.5m wide reinforced-grass vehicular access ramps over the flood embankment at Exwick

Matching old and new

Much of the value was in the finish. Reinstated cobbles, ashlar coursing and colour-matched mortar had to read as part of the original quay while still meeting the levels and falls of a modern flood defence. We agreed samples and details with the joint venture and the planning authority before wider installation, then self-delivered the work with our own masons and plant.

The outcome

The stone cladding, reinstated cobbles and new paving now form the public face of the flood defences along Exeter Quay, protecting the waterfront while keeping its historic character.

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