Highways Agency

A21 Lamberhurst Bypass

Environmental Issues

The Bypass passes through an area of very high landscape value, designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Highways Agency is committed to reducing the impact of new road schemes on the environment and especially on an area as attractive as that around Lamberhurst.

Therefore, the alignment of the Bypass has been chosen to minimise the impact on views from the village and to be as low as possible across the river valley. Construction includes landscape features to help to integrate the new road into the surrounding countryside as much as possible.

Earth mounds have been built alongside the Bypass to screen it from prominent view points such as St Mary's Church. Where possible slopes of the mounds have been rounded to help further integration into the rolling form of the existing landscape and planting on the slopes, including native trees, wildflowers and grassland, has already begun.

Ecology

The area through which the Bypass passes is a valuable ecological resource being the home to dormice, badgers, great crested newts, roosting bats, nesting birds and grass snakes, all of which are protected by legislation. Under the supervision of licensed specialists, site clearance and ecological mitigation was carried out before the start of the main Bypass works. This included trapping and relocating protected species and encouraging them to move away naturally as a result of the removal of trees and shrubs which provide their home and food source.

Dormice live mainly in the branches of low trees and shrubs and are reluctant to travel across open spaces or along the ground. Nesting boxes were put up prior to their hibernation and over 50 animals were moved away from the route of the Bypass. Monitoring of the dormice population has continued and of the 101 animals found in adjacent woodlands during construction, 46 had been born since relocation indicating the success of the relocation.

Five species of bat have been found in the area. Great care was taken during site clearance to inspect trees for roosting holes prior to felling and bat boxes have been put up to replace lost roosting sites.

Archaeology

Before the start of construction the remains of an old quarry, believed to be ironstone workings, were examined and recorded in the Ruffets woodland. An important part of Kent's heritage in the form of two hop pickers huts on the line of the Bypass was examined and recorded prior to demolition.

Throughout construction there was an archaeological "watching brief". In the early stages, findings of small pieces of medieval pottery on Spray Hill led to an extensive investigation which uncovered evidence of 13th century small scale metal working. Slag found on the site suggests that iron produced from the local ironstone was not very pure but nevertheless could have been used for nails, horseshoes, arrowheads and small agricultural implements.