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New Carlisle bypass route kind to city's creatures

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20th May 2010

Times & Star, Cumbria, United Kingdom

Carlisle has waited many years for its northern bypass to be built. But it had to wait a little longer until engineers were sure that all the area's wildlife was safe. The News & Star looks at the conservation work still being carried out.

Stand at the site in Carlisle where the city’s new bypass is being built and you’ll see a typical construction scene crowded with mechanical diggers, soil, gravel, pipes, lorries, concrete and hard-hatted workmen.

Yet on the fringes of the new road a wealth of wildlife still thrives – bats, otters, newts, toads and rare species of wildflower.

They were there long before the diggers arrived. And a lot of work is underway to ensure they are still there long after the diggers have gone.

Protecting the flora and fauna in the land surrounding the Carlisle Northern Development Route is a vital part of the job, as Malcolm Findlay explains.

Malcolm is construction and design manager with Connect Roads, the company set up by engineering giants Balfour Beatty specifically to build the long-awaited bypass.

He is one of more than 150 people involved in the work – some from other parts of the country, many recruited locally.

Like workers in any dangerous industry they each have to undergo extensive health and safety training as part of their induction.

But their induction also involves training in nature conservation.

“It’s something we have to take very seriously,” Malcolm says. “The area around the River Eden is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation, so it’s the law. We’ve had long conversations with the Environment Agency and Natural England about what we have to do.”

The walls of the site offices bear huge maps of the bypass route, with different zones colour-coded in red, amber and green. The red zones are the most sensitive areas, where nature has to be most carefully guarded, the amber areas are of medium importance for nature, and the green areas are less restricted.

Our tour of the site begins in the heart of the red zone. It is lined with about two miles of black fencing about 14 inches high – one of the first protection measures that had to be installed.

It is a newt fence, designed to be too tall for newts to climb over and so ensuring they stay out of the building site.

All newts, but especially the great-crested newt, have been in serious decline as ponds have disappeared across the country. They are now classified as an endangered species and are protected by law – and the 14-inch fence proves an effective barrier for them.

But some newts will have already ventured in before the fence was erected so an early job was to catch those inside the boundary and remove them to safety.

That meant setting traps for them.

“Newts like places to hide, so what we did was lay down carpet tiles and buckets for them,” Malcolm explains. “Ecologists went round and checked under the tiles and in the buckets on a daily basis, and took the newts to nearby ponds, outside the site.

“That had to be done before we started any construction work, and we’ll have to maintain the fence for the duration. But we are sure we’ve now removed all the newts.”

Some trees and hedgerows had to be uprooted to make way for the bypass. So another of the first tasks was to provide new homes for the bats and birds that relied on them.

In trees in the orange zones, large bat boxes have been set up as alternative housing.

“There are 50 bat boxes around the site,” Malcolm says. “We could only take down the trees and hedgerows at certain times of year, when the birds and bats weren’t nesting, but we had to put up the bat boxes before we could remove anything.”

Along the western edge of the bypass another bat protection measure is being erected – a tall mesh fence called a bat deflector.

“Bats fly in straight lines so they could easily fly straight into the path of an HGV. When they sense the deflector they will fly upwards to avoid it and fly over the top of any high vehicles.”

The new bypass will be running through the middle of Kingmoor Nature Reserve, which is popular not just with human visitors but with otters.

Attempting to cross the new road would be dangerous for both – so two underpasses are being built, one for each species.

“We still need to provide access to all parts of the nature reserve, so we’re putting in an underpass with a gentle slope down to it to allow it to be used by bikes or wheelchairs.”

Next to the underpass two large concrete tubes protrude from the embankment, one higher than the other.

One is a culvert to take the stream under the road, but Malcolm points out: “In heavy rain the stream would swell, the culvert would fill up and otters wouldn’t want to swim through.

“So we’ve put in an ‘otter pass’ higher up which they can use. What we don’t want is for them to venture out onto the road and potentially get squished.”

It is not just animals but plants too that need to be safeguarded. Rare wildflowers such as orchids are protected by law and some growing within the site had to be dug up and planted elsewhere.

But because they are protected species Malcolm wants their new location to remain secret.

“We found some rare flowers in the area near the railway bridge so we have relocated them, somewhere just outside the site.”

Nowadays before any construction job can get underway time and care have to go into safeguarding the natural environment.

It wasn’t always like this – but Malcolm approves of today’s tougher rules.

“About 10 years ago they didn’t think much about it, but it is much better that they do now. Just to go onto virgin ground and not consider the impact you’re having on nature is not the way we want to be working.

“I walk around Kingmoor Nature Reserve with my kids, and I want it to stay the way it is.”

• The Carlisle Northern Development Route is costing £176 million to build and work is on schedule. The first stretch is due to be completed by the autumn of next year and the entire bypass will be ready in spring 2012.

It will be five miles long and will link the A595 at Newby West to Junction 44 of the M6, crossing Orton Road, Moorhouse Road, Burgh Road, the River Eden and Kingmoor Road.

Traffic from the west of the county will be able to reach the motorway and trunk roads such as the A74 and A69 more quickly, without having to pass through the middle of Carlisle.

With fewer vehicles clogging up city centre roads, traffic flow within Carlisle should also be improved by the bypass. Volumes of traffic on Castle Way are expected to drop by a quarter when it opens.