A536 Congleton Link Road: a 5.7km bypass joining A534 with A536, including many tributaries and tie-in sections, cleared from end to end.

Client: John Graham Construction Ltd

Date: January 2019

Contract Value: £180K

Scope of Works and Services carried out:

• Supply of dedicated project manager and supervisors to work closely with client and ecologists throughout.
• Provision of resource schedule to deliver successful completion of project in a 12-week window.
• Design of full set Risk Assessment Methods Statements (RAMS) that allowed for successful and safe completion of works encompassing risk factors such as hi-voltage lines, busy main roads, steep banks and rivers. Multiple ecological factors including badgers, newts, butterflies and ancient woodland.
• Mechanised removal of over 3000 trees across the course of the project. Supply of a wide range of machinery including excavators, tractors with timber trailers, forwarders and harvesters, and two mechanised arb teams.
• Removal of 12 kilometres of hedgerow using PTO driven and self-propelled mulchers alongside less invasive tractor mounted saw arms for cutting hedges to 150mm in newt-sensitive areas.
• Supply of tractor hedge cutters for retained hedges, and excavators for hedge translocation.
• Supply of large PTO woodchippers, walking floors, and timber wagons to clear material not required in the Ecological Mitigation Zones (EMZs).
• Winch-based clearance works and safe system implementation to clear steeps banks either side of the river Dane allowing for bridge construction.
• Implementation of a low ground pressure clearance system for felling works in ancient woodland quarry site.
• Implementation of multiple sections of traffic management to keep traffic live when clearing along tie points.
• Supply of multiple arborist teams working with MEWPS and conventional climbing systems when working on trees adjacent to the roadside.
• Creation of 12 ecological mitigation ponds filled with relocated live vegetation and shrubbery.
• Build and installation of kingfisher nests.
• Installation of bird and bat boxes throughout.
• Creation of hibernaculars in EMZs at various junctures along the course.