Highways Agency

Chapter 5 Caring for the Environment

Minimising the impact of the network

Indicator

Achieve an average target of x% across the four environment programme sub-indicators. (Noise, Air Quality, Biodiversity, Landscape)

Target

85%

Performance

93.6%

Indicator

% of vacant residential properties at the end of year does not exceed x% of residential portfolio.

Target

15%

Performance

15.4%

Indicator

% of vacant habitable properties empty for > 6 months does not exceed x%.

Target

3%

Performance

3%

The Highways Agency works in partnership with environmental organisations to help safeguard the environment

The Agency's network is the economic and social backbone of the country's transport system, but can impact on the environment and those living nearby. The Agency is fully committed to minimising the impact its roads have on both the natural and built environment.

Environmental measures are built into all contracts with suppliers and the Agency works closely in partnership with environmental organisations to make sure that it minimises the effect of its roads on the environment.

The Agency's soft estate - the areas of verge between the road and the highway boundary fence - provides a valuable habitat for wildlife which needs to be carefully managed. The Agency will shortly publish a biodiversity action plan setting targets for maintaining and enhancing the variety of flora and fauna on its soft estate over the next 10 years. This will improve on the position as at the end of March 2001 when the Agency had about a third of its network under active biodiversity management.

The Agency now manages nearly 70% of its network under active landscape management plans and it is the second-largest planter of broad-leaved native trees in the country after Forest Enterprise (formerly the Forestry Commission).

Urban areas are not neglected. The Agency's landscaping programme on the A50 in Stoke-on-Trent won an award from the British Association of Landscaping Industries for design and planting work in November 2000.

Traffic noise can have a major impact on the quality of life of those who live close to busy parts of the network. The Agency is addressing these problems by carrying out noise mitigation measures including earthen mounds (known as 'bunds'), special acoustic barriers, installing double-glazing and noise insulation on new schemes as well as existing problem sites. Low noise surfacing is used for all resurfacing except where environmental factors dictate otherwise. In addition, there is a programme to treat some noisy locations which meet specific criteria from a list presented to Parliament (known as 'Hansard' sites). The Agency treated seven sites from this list in 2000/01, spending £4.4 million on cost-effective noise reduction measures.

The Highways Agency soft estate provides a valuable habitat for wildlife

Road lighting accounts for the Agency's biggest use of electricity and can cause light pollution, disturbing both local residents and nocturnal wildlife. Following deregulation of the utility companies, the Agency awarded a 12-month contract to Eastern Electricity that started on 1 April 2000. This used energy from renewable sources and has saved the taxpayer £2 million. To reduce light pollution, the Agency has installed environmentally-friendly lighting on the M1 near Nottingham which projects a more natural, golden-white glow and also focuses the light down on to the road.

As part of the No Man's Heath and Macefen Bypass on the A41 in Cheshire, ecologists devised measures to protect great-crested newts, which are now protected from the works by a special fence. In addition to this, the Agency is working to enhance the area's extensive run of badger sets.

Case study: Bat colonies on the A66 Stainburn/Great Clifton bypass

Ingenious measures were taken to avoid disruption to bats living in trees in Upper Park near Stainburn, Cumbria when it was necessary to fell some of these trees for work to start on a new bypass for the A66 around Stainburn and Great Clifton. This scheme will have huge benefits to residents by removing 75-80% of through-traffic from local villages.

Camouflage nets that recreate the natural habitat of the bats have been installed to provide a link between the two halves of the wood where the trees have been felled. These fool the bats' sonar, which would otherwise detect the gap in the trees, into thinking that the tree line remains unbroken. This means that they continue to use the whole forest for feeding.

Common Pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus)