Project example
South West Pipeline Reinforcement Project
Client: RSK Environment/Laing O'Rourke
Contract value: £200,000
Key Services: baseline surveys of badger and reptiles; ecological clerk of works; bat monitoring; reporting
The pipeline runs through nearly 60km of Somerset and Devon countryside
In order to meet an increased demand for energy in the South West, National Grid recently constructed a new high-pressure natural gas pipeline through Somerset to Plymouth in Devon.
Andrew McCarthy Associates was contracted by RSK Environment and Laing O’Rourke to undertake ecological supervision along the 57km route section through Devon.
Our team of up to ten ecologists was engaged on a more or less full time basis from over a period of two years undertaking ecological baseline surveys and pre-vegetation watching-brief checks for dormouse, badger, reptiles, bats and nesting birds.
Monitoring - The project is now in the habitat reinstatement phase and AMA is working in summer 2009 to monitor the effect of landscape fragmentation on bat and dormouse populations and is examining the effectiveness of grassland habitat creation.