CECA North West Annual Awards 2023

CECA North West Annual Awards 2023

We are pleased to announce that we took home the Environmental Excellence award for our Whinny Brook Project!

Whinny Brook is a housing development for 2500 new homes in Merseyside. We were appointed to provide specialist earthworks to widen the existing brook and forming a reservoir to mitigate flood risk for the overall development. Our works included the construction of the reservoir, which is over 770m long and extends to 50m in width and includes a road crossing, footpaths, and access tracks over a 1200mm diameter culvert.

As part of the construction of the reservoir a ‘Vole Hotel’ was required to be constructed to encourage water voles back into the brook. Prior to works commencing a water vole survey and collection was undertaken with the water voles taken to a temporary refuge for reintroduction upon completion of the works.

The title of Vole Hotel does not necessarily imply a large structure or feature, but the reality is somewhat different. The vole sanctuary is 770m long, comprising of complex water spill ways, castellated bund system and various flood water plateaus to tie the various features and structures together. The complete design allows for various rises in water level. Should the level rise, where the voles normally reside, they can move up the various levels until the water level subsides. If the water level is exceptionally high, various structures have been installed at the top of the batter to provide a safe environment. Our in-house CAD & Engineering Department managed the modelling for this intricate design to ensure that our machine-controlled plant fleet delivered a perfect flood alleviation scheme inclusive of the outstanding looking ‘Vole Hotels’!

We had a great night celebrating our industry, congratulations to all the award winners.