Work on replacing the main gate on the Foss Barrier in York will have to wait until river levels go down.
Yellow and Amber weather alerts have been issued for heavy rain across North Yorkshire this week and there are concerns that this. plus the snow melt, will lead to more flooding.
Pausing work on the defences will mean that flood protection on the River Foss is maintained.
Once work restarts, the Environment Agency says it has 8 large steel stoplogs placed across the Foss channel which will allow the barrier to operate as normal without a gate.
They will remain in place until the new gate is installed.
All the mechanical and electrical equipment that operates the gate is being replaced, upgraded and fully integrated with the rest of the Foss Barrier pumping station.
The floodwall between Skeldergate Bridge and the Novotel is also being raised.
As part of the upgrade, all eight pumps have been replaced by bigger ones with greater capacity and new back-up generators mean they can operate during a power failure.
