This platform is protected on its up-stream and down-stream sides by a continuous and impermeable line of cast iron tongued and grooved sheet-piling with cemented joints.

This piling extends into the sand bed of the river to a depth of 23 feet (7.0 m) below the upper surface of the platform and prevents it from being undermined.

In 1956 works were carried out at the Ibrahimiya head regulator as a result of significant scour holes that developed downstream of the structure.

Between 1984 and 1986 a program of cement grouting works was undertaken at the barrage, though there are no records of the head regulator receiving similar treatment.

After more than 100 years in service, the civil works have been affected by age and also by tailwater erosion as a consequence of a modified river regime after the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

Between 2000 and 2005, the Egyptian government commissioned an extended Feasibility Study (FS) financed by the German government to investigate the options of rehabilitation of the existing Assiut Barrage and the Ibrahimiya head regulator against reconstruction of a new barrage with a hydro-power plant.

German Consultants financed by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) conducted the study and concluded that a new dam with power generating capabilities would be the most economic option.