A DELICATE balance of defence and design is the aim of works to protect Northwich town centre from a force of nature.

A £4.5 million scheme is currently being constructed along the River Dane and the River Weaver to defend the redeveloping town from flood.

Put forward by the Environment Agency to protect 500 homes and businesses, the project has received £2 million Government funding and £500,000 from Cheshire West and Chester Council.

It features a number of defence methods along sections of the two rivers and their confluence, including raising ground levels, building walls and embankments and using flood gates and demountable defences.

The Guardian was given a tour of key areas of the works led by David Brown, senior advisor on the Environment Agency's flood risk team, Ian Gemmell, contracts manager from Galliford Try and Black and Veatch (GBV), and Hywel Evans, site supervisor for the Environment Agency.

The tour began at the Bull Ring, where a wall is being built around the offices and shops that lie between the road junction and the confluence of the two rivers.

Piles are currently being driven into the river bed in a method called sheet piling, which vibrates them into the ground.

These piles will then form the foundation for the flood defence wall, which will be a mixture of sandstone and glass panels.

Its location, at the point where the Dane flows into the Weaver, means this has to be the biggest wall in the scheme, which has proved controversial in terms of its visual impact.

"The glass panels and sandstone will give the wall a high quality finish, it will be a high quality job," David said.

"There have been concerns about the wall from the River Weaver Navigation Society but hopefully this high quality and the way we're maintaining visual connectivity will mean that it will be better than they think it might be.

"The other thing we will have along here is a floating habitat that will soften the base of the wall.

"It did have vegetation along here before and once that's grown up it will rise and fall with the river and be in keeping with the area."

Constructing this wall posed a challenge as the space on the ground is limited so contractors have been working from a floating pontoon on the Weaver, with piles being transported by boat from the Canal and River Trust's depot along the river.

Weaver Way and the approach to the new Barons Quay will also be protected by a wall of glass panels on sheet piled foundations to maintain the view of the river.

Ground levels have been raised as part of the redevelopment of Barons Quay itself, and this will tie in with the defence works.

Fencing along both banks of the River Dane behind Watling Street Surgery and Riverbank Day Nursery will be replaced by glass panels and demountable defences will be used on Dane Street if a flood is particularly high.

These temporary measures will be stored at the Environment Agency's Winsford depot and installed by agency staff at times of need.

"Clearly we can't put defences across the road," David said.

"We expect it to be ok for a one in 20 year flood by doing raising work around the bridge.

"If the flood is more than that then we will scurry out and put the demountable defences up and temporary traffic lights.

"It's a vulnerable area – keeping water out of this area stops it reaching the crossroads by the former J&S and by Natwest, we have to contain it here."

The tour also gave us a peek behind the hoardings in the car park at Waitrose.

Here the gabions, the cages filled with rocks that made up the new riverside wall at Hayhurst Quay, have had to be removed and foundations are being put in ready for more flood walls topped with glass panels.

Once this work is complete the hornbeam trees that were cut down to make way for the scheme will be replaced.

David said the Environment Agency had discussed tying in the flood defence work with the redevelopment of Hayhurst Quay but the timings were wrong.

"It's a shame but I'm confident about reinstating this as it was, but with defences in place," he said.

He explained that the glass panels to be used in the scheme use the same kind of nano technology used at Canary Wharf.

The self cleaning panes break up dirt which is then washed away by the rain.

"We're using quality products here that are well established in terms of flood risk management and it feels like the right quality finish," David said, Other parts of the scheme are enchantingly low-tech.

A prime example of this was when the tour took us to Heber Walk and down a path towards the River Dane with no evidence of building work.

We were told we had just walked over the defences – a simple hump in the path.

The works are set to be complete by March 2016.