Crossrail Material to Help Make Bird Sanctuary

Crossrail have recently awarded a contract for the shipment of waste material to a joint venture company BAM Nuttall Limited/ Van Oord UK Ltd.

The contract will involve the transportation of waste material from the tunnel excavations to Wallasea Island In Essex. At the Wallasea Island site, the material will be used to create wetlands for a new RSPB nature reserve. This will help combat coastal flooding from climate change and also compensate for the loss of other landscapes elsewhere in the country. It is anticipated that at least two-thirds of the excavated material will be able to be used.

The first consignments are anticipated in the summer of 2012. It is estimated that the tunnels will generate 6 million tonnes of material of which 4.5 million tonnes will be fine for the new site. The RSPB site will require 10 million tonnes in order to create a site of some 1500 acres.

Wallasea Island is located some eight miles north of Southend-on-Sea in Essex. The material will exit from the site at various locations and by taken to the site over land and sea. Upto five ships in a day could make the trip down the Thames and up past foulness and into the Crouch. The navigation channel in the Crouch has recently been upgraded for this purpose.

The excavated material will be used to raise existing levels at Wallasea and to create new raised areas within current sea walls. Controlled flooding of these areas will help create the new wetlands.