Relief road and bridge in Shinfield achieves CEEQUAL Excellent
Overview
A project to construct a new relief road in Shinfield achieved a CEEQUAL (now known as BREEAM Infrastructure) rating of Excellent. This project decided to use CEEQUAL after realising it was already aligned with many of the principles of the assessment. It navigated challenges of flood risk and wildlife habitats to deliver the development.
Challenges
The relief road passes through a greenfield site, with half of it across an active flood plain and associated reconfigurations to existing roads and junctions. The road across the flood plain was constructed on a clay core embankment to keep the road above the level of a 1 in 100-year flood, with culverts beneath the embankment to mitigate the impact on flood waters.
The project included extensive environmental mitigations including mammal tunnels, bat and bird roosts, reptile hibernacula, animal proof fencing and an extensive landscaping regime.
Solutions
The project team recognised that the project delivery was naturally following the principles of CEEQUAL. For a small amount of additional effort to collate the evidence required, the team decided to undertake the formal assessment and seek the award.
The value which the award is likely to bring to the business due to positive recognition from clients is expected to outweigh the cost incurred in securing the award.
Physical resources use and management (energy, water, materials and waste)
During delivery of the project, the existing ground within the site was found to be of suitable quality to allow a local borrow pit to source the main clay core for the road embankment across the flood plain. The borrow pit was backfilled using inert unsuitable materials from the site.
Pile arisings (good quality clay) and other suitable material won from site were used in the construction of the main embankments rather than being disposed of off site.
The project also constructed a temporary haul road across the flood plain directly below the permanent embankment using soil mixing / stabilisation methods with no additional import. This prevented disturbance of the existing ground which would have rendered it unsuitable for use and would have needed it to be removed and replaced.
Between these two items, over 2000 lorry movements were removed from the local roads, along with a reduction in the import and export of materials to site of approximately 18,000 tonnes.
People and communities
The project team, and particularly the stakeholder manager, was actively involved with the local community. This included attending and sponsoring local village events and competitions, hosting regular community update meetings and making a special presentation to a local dance school who had been displaced by the project.
The historic environment
An existing Listed building was retained by the project, including completing remedial works and construction of a new boundary wall with matching historic materials and methods. This allowed the employment of a local specialist contractor, with improvement to their knowledge and skills.
The water environment
All water used on site, with the exception of that which needed to be potable water for health and/or specification reasons, was sourced from site run off, intercepted groundwater from excavations or from Environment Agency permitted extraction points in the local river. The project constructed the permanent attenuation ponds as early as possible to provide storage for the water to permit on-site use.
