Multidisciplinary Works for New £43m Link Road Set to Open Up 85,000 sq ft of Development Space

We were pleased to be invited to the official opening of the new £43.3million Etruria Valley Link Road in Stoke-on-Trent last week. The 1km road features new bridges over the West Coast Mainline, Trent and Mersey Canal and Fowlea Brook that serve 85,000 sq ft of newly-built industrial and logistics development space on a former steelworks site, which has been largely disused since the early 2000s. Business Development Director and Head of Ground and Environmental Engineering in our Stoke-on-Trent office, Rory Bates attended the opening of the road in recognition of the multidisciplinary services that we have provided for both the Etruria Valley site and link road since 2014.

Wardell Armstrong carried out an overriding ground conditions investigation and geo-environmental assessment on behalf of the City of Stoke-on-Trent. This included a sustainable forward-thinking strategy, which has allowed the majority of contaminated soil to remain on site. The sustainable re-use of soil and material on site, has reduced road movements and limited the overall carbon footprint of the scheme.

In more recent years we have worked on behalf of the Contractor, Balfour Beatty, to further enhance and update the geo-environmental assessment, including additional chemical analysis to ensure that a robust, cost effective and environmentally suitable remediation strategy was implemented for the new link road.

We were also heavily involved in the wildlife and ecological aspects of the Etruria Valley Link Road project from the commencement of works on site, providing services ranging from baseline assessments for a range of protected species, through to the design and implementation of numerous complex mitigation strategies.

Some of these strategies include the sympathetic temporary closure of a badger sett under licence from Natural England and the creation of a new sett to rehome the displaced badgers, the removal of invasive signal crayfish during a fish translocation exercise during the realignment of Fowlea Brook, the removal of invasive flora (including Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam) from the site amongst others. These works involved the procurement of a multitude of bespoke licences and permits from various statutory and administrative bodies. Wardell Armstrong are pleased to have had a positive ecological impact on the development and have helped safeguard our precious wildlife whilst facilitating much needed development without compromising our natural environment.

The Etruria Valley Link Road will open to the public on Monday 23rd January 2023.