Jubilee River

The Jubilee River is a hydraulic channel in southern England. It is 11.6 km (7.2 mi) long and is on average 45 metres (148 feet) wide. It was constructed in the late 1990s and early 2000s to take overflow from the River Thames and so alleviate flooding to areas in and around the towns of Maidenhead, Windsor, and Eton in the counties of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. It achieves this by taking water from the left (at this point eastern) bank of the Thames upstream of Boulter's Lock near Maidenhead and returning it via the north bank downstream of Eton, Berkshire. Although successful in its stated aims, residents of villages downstream claim it has increased flooding.

The Environment Agency commissioned the design and construction of the river which cost £110 million. When it was formed, the channel was the largest man-made river project undertaken in Britain in modern times, and the second largest in Europe. As well as creating the channel and its various flow control mechanisms, the scheme involved constructing many bridges for road, rail and foot traffic. One of these, Dorney Bridge, took the channel through a 19th-century Brunel railway embankment while it continued to carry main line trains between London and Bristol. The Victorian tall embankment had to be frozen, bored through creating a large tunnel and then a concrete culvert already formed to fit was inserted.

The channel also had to be taken through Black Potts Viaduct, which carries the railway line built to Windsor & Eton Riverside station. Protective structures had to be put in place to preserve its structural integrity.

The channel involved complex civil engineering to deal with utility conduits, roads and railways, as well as ecological and social issues, entailing compulsory purchases, community lectures and consultations and a public enquiry. Conception to fruition took about twenty years.

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