Background
The East West Rail project aims to improve connections between East Anglia and central, southern and western England through line extensions, upgrades and new stations. It also aims to transform the towns along its route, linking people with jobs, stimulating new housing and linking major economic hubs locally and across the UK.
Scope of services
Phase 1 – Oxford to Bicester
We supported on stakeholder engagement, produced method statements for work near SSSIs and carried out surveys and ecological mitigation, including
- surveys for bats, badgers and great crested newts
- gaining a route-wide badger licence to close 17 setts, construction of an artificial sett and supervision of a technically challenging ‘live dig’
- modification and management of seven great crested newt European Protected Species licences.
Phase 2 – Bicester to Bedford
We brought together a team of ten experts to provide essential technical support to the client project team to meet its tight timeline for producing a supplementary environmental statement. Our team:
- worked closely with the client’s project team to provide quality assurance of all the survey data
- prepared nine technical appendices
- produced sections of the further environmental information report
- supported the client through the public inquiry, providing an experienced expert witness with excellent knowledge of the scheme and many years of public inquiry experience.
The project required significant vegetation removal. We advised on the construction of ecological compensation sites along the route and off-site, balancing the local stakeholders’ requirements with the requirements for a working railway. A redesign of the drainage system also reduced biodiversity loss. Our bat radio-tracking work to understand how bats used the landscape informed major replanting efforts and mitigation for barbastelle bats. Our expertise in biodiversity net gain (BNG) assessment has enabled us to advise the project on supporting its BNG obligation, creating and enhancing habitats and reducing the project’s impact on protected species.
Impact
The project was a finalist in the Environmental and Sustainability category at the 2016 Rail Industry Awards.