Our Projects
M20 Balancing Pond revitalisation
Client: Octavius Infrastructure
Project Value: £3.8million
Balancing Pond 23 sits just to the west of Cheriton in Kent and National Highways had it earmarked for a two-phase renewal programme. The first phase involved removing the mass of silt and vegetation that had taken hold over the years.
Our client was faced with having to prepare a project plan that involved working in a confined space that had two highway run-off inlets, a storm drain inlet, and a run-off inlet from a nearby railway marshalling yard. The inlets are uncontrolled, so our client had no ability to control water ingress; the outfall sluice led directly to a SSSI and joined a stream which wound its way through someone’s back garden, so the outward flow had to be carefully measured. There was no way to control the water in, and they had to control the water out. And then the newts came.
They Asked Us To Help
Normal procedure would have you divert the water into a holding or diversion chamber and dig the silt and vegetation out, but we didn’t know how much water we would need to hold or divert, or when it would arrive. So we innovated and turned to a specialist dredging contractor who brought a small suction dredger to site – now we could lock the water in while we dredged the silt out, preventing surges of water downstream or contamination of the SSSI while we worked. In the end we removed 500m³ of hazardous material without disturbing the nearby ecology through usual methods involving diversions, discharging, and heavy excavators.
You can rely on us to improve safety, raise standards, drive delivery, and manage your site effectively
Contact our team to understand how we can meet your exact requirements, discuss our various services and how we can manage your your site effectively.