Country: United Kingdom
Key Area: Other Infrastructure
Services: Civil Engineering,Geotechnical Engineering
Opus was commissioned by The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to supervise creation of a new nature reserve in South Yorkshire. Opus was appointed to supervise the earthworks in conjunction with their in-house experts to transform 43 hectares of farmland into a new wetlands area.
In addition to providing emergency flood storage to protect an area along the River Dearne which is susceptible to flooding, the scheme would develop a habitat consisting of two interlinked lakes to help attract back the endangered Bittern to the area.
Nearby to the nature reserve, Opus was working at another site for the Housing Developer, Ben Bailey Homes. This project involved raising the ground level with engineered fill to create a platform on which new homes could be built and would require over 150,000m3 of material to raise the level of the ground to accommodate the 292 houses being built. As over 200,000m3 of material was due to be excavated from the farmland, Opus saw an opportunity to re-use this material to create the housings platforms and to prevent the need for additional material to be brought from elsewhere.
The value of sharing materials was promoted to both clients and it was agreed that the excavated clay would be re-used at the housing development, whilst 2,500m3 of bulrush and reeds which formed one of the last pieces of natural fen in the Dearne Valley from the development site would be re-used at the nature reserve to retain the plant life and hasten the process of creating a mature wetland.
There were substantial benefits to the local area as the RSPB no longer needed to make long journeys to dispose of their material elsewhere and new material was not required to be imported to the residential development site, resulting in less construction traffic.
Mark Mitchell, the Managing Director of Ben Bailey Homes said, “Not only was this a cost effective solution, but it also enabled us to play a positive contribution to the development of the nature reserve, a project which would undoubtedly benefit wildlife as well as the local community.”
Since the nature reserve was completed there have been reports of new wildlife in the area, including sightings of spoonbills and avocets and most excitingly its first ever Bittern.
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