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A614 Trunk Road, Caville Bridge, Howden:

Project: widening the bridge carrying a trunk road on a wooded embankment over an active mainline railway.

Issues:

• four borrow pits at the foot of the embankment, all with great crested newts;
• an active badger main sett in the embankment;
• restricted easement and no potential for off-site mitigation;
• need to work within tight timetable for rail possession

Solutions:

• mitigation for all issues agreed with English Nature and licensed by Defra;
• newts retained on site; ponds fenced with high-impact amphibian fencing designed and installed by ESL Groundworks staff;
• embankments trapped out and then hand-searched before works began;
• badger sett retained in situ and monitored through works;
• the provision of an ecological site officer to cover work in critical areas available 24/7 to cover night-time rail possession and road closure ensuring programme protection.

Compliance Division handles all developments with a planning dimension, short of a formal Environmental Statement. This ranges from initial identification of ecological constraints, particularly rare, scarce and protected species and habitats, to discharge of planning conditions, often relating to new habitat creation, licensed translocation of animals or plant communities and provision of management plans. Compliance staff work on air and sea ports, road and rail schemes, quarries, landfills and pipelines, in addition to housing, industrial and business development.