PRESS RELEASE

11 May 2011

CEEQUAL 'Excellent' Award presented to A419 Blunsdon Bypass at the Green Economy Conference

Members of the A419 Blunsdon Bypass project team were presented by Jean Venables, Past President of the Institution of Engineers, with its CEEQUAL Design and Build Award at the Institution of Civil Engineers South West ‘Construction in the Green Economy Conference’ held at the Eden Project on May 11, 2011.

The scheme delivered by Carillion Civil Engineering for the Highways Agency with design services provided by Mouchel and Nicholas Pearson Associates achieved an ‘Excellent’ whole project score of 76.6% in the CEEQUAL assessment. The score recognises the environmental considerations taken in the design and construction of the project.

As a designated ‘Area of Local Landscape Interest’ landscape mitigation was essential. Extensive planting throughout the scheme and reduced street lighting ensured that the visual impact of the bypass was minimised. Ecological measures such as wildflower planting, provision of bird and bat boxes together with artificial badger setts have protected and enhanced wildlife habitats.

Through careful design the project team were able to:

• Create a balanced earthworks profile by using the spoil for landscape mitigation and processing site materials for use as primary aggregates.
• Enabled the majority of the scheme to be built offline, reducing major traffic management operations from 24 months to 6.
• With the co-operation of the local Council and the Highways Agency, ensure the redundant section of the carriageway was seamlessly reconstructed as a green road upon completion of the bypass.

These measures:

• Removed the dependency on landfill and primary aggregate resources.
• Reduced the number of wagon deliveries by approximately 6,000.
• Reduced the construction programme by 6 months.
• Allowed journey time reliability to be maintained throughout construction.

The A419 Blunsdon Bypass key objectives of minimising the impact on the environment as well as neighbours of the scheme and road users whilst removing a major bottleneck on a strategic route were achieved and it successfully re-united the previously divided village of Blunsdon.

CEEQUAL is the assessment and awards scheme for improving sustainability in civil engineering and public realm projects. It celebrates the achievement of high environmental and social performance and demonstrates the commitment of the civil engineering industry to environmental quality. CEEQUAL is being promoted by the ICE, CIRIA and a group of committed industry organisations such as CECA and ACE.

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Note to Editors

About CEEQUAL

1. CEEQUAL was originally developed by a team led by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and part-funded by the ICE Research and Development Enabling Fund and the UK Government.
2. Since the Scheme’s launch in late 2003, more than 70 final and more than 40 interim CEEQUAL Awards have been made to a very wide range of civil engineering and public realm projects. Almost all projects that have received an Award are listed on the CEEQUAL website.
3. CEEQUAL measures how far beyond minimum legal compliance towards pinnacle best practice the project team has performed. There are four grades to the Awards: Pass, Good, Very Good and Excellent.
4. The Scheme is run through CEEQUAL Ltd, owned by a group of organisations that were actively involved in the development of the Scheme, including the ICE, the Association for Consultancy and Engineering, the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environment Management.

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Lise Watkins
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Dana Carouba
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Tel: +44 (0)20 72549 3302