PEOPLE living close to the river and railway line at Lymington will have their homes surveyed before the Environment Agency begins using vibrating piledrivers on a £3.4m flood defence scheme.

The piledrivers, mounted on railway wagons, will be used to limit the noise of the impact hammers usually used for driving in sheet steel piling.

As a precaution against vibration damage to property, the Environment Agency is surveying properies within 40 metres of the railway, between Bridge Road and the Lymington New Forest Hospital at Ampress.

Around 50 residential and commercial properties will be checked and where necessary photographed so it can be checked afterwards whether any damage has been caused.

When the seven-week piling project begins on September 30, engineers will build a 860 metre long steel flood wall between the river reed beds and the railway to prevent a recurrence of the floods of Christmas 1999.

Then, water backed up behind the Bridge Road causeway flooded across the reed beds on to the railway line. The trackbed provided a perfect conduit for the water to flow along to the level crossing in Bridge Road.

Water collected there and in nearby Waterloo Road, flooding homes and businesses.

In addition to the flood defence wall, engineers will construct a raised bund and flood gate across Bridge Road. Work will start there at the beginning of September, which will mean occasional road closures with diversions clearly marked.

The single-track Brockenhurst to Lymington railway line will be closed from September 30 while the sheet piling is installed.

South West Trains passengers will be able to use a half-hourly replacement bus service which will call at Lymington Town and Pier stations.

Tim Kermode, the Environment Agency's flood risk manager for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, said: "I well remember Christmas 1999, when I saw houses in Waterloo Road being flooded in the early hours of Christmas morning.

"This scheme has come about due to many hours of work following this event and as the widespread flooding has shown we are experiencing more extreme weather and need to do as much as we can to protect against this.

"We are delighted to be starting this essential flood defence work, which will to prevent flooding to the local community at Lymington.

"We have worked hard to limit the disruption that this work will cause but apologise for any inconvenience during this period."