TERRAQUA ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS SUPPORTS DEVELOPMENT CONSENT ORDER PREPARATORY WORKS FOR THE PORT OF TILBURY, LONDON’S MAJOR PORT

Terraqua Environmental Solutions (TES), provides a large range of high-quality products for use in aquatic and bioengineering projects. The team recently completed a contract for The Port of Tilbury London Limited. TES was contracted to plant up newly created ditches as part of a plan to provide advance compensatory habitat for water voles, and enable the habitat to mature prior to construction work beginning at the site.

The Port of Tilbury has obtained a Development Consent Order (DCO) via the national infrastructure planning system to build a new Port (‘Tilbury2’) at an old coal burning Power Station site. The expansion project involved the creation of 2.5km new wet drainage ditches which were planted up with mature vegetation, developing an ecologically suitable habitat for the voles to be translocated to. The new ditches were created to replace the 2.5km of ditches that will be lost when the development commences. The TES team carried out the planting in September.

Lynn Puttock, General Manager at TES comments: “Whilst working closely with Scott Wilmore, Project Manager at The Port of Tilbury and ecologists, Bioscan (UK) Ltd, we were able to produce a two-phase plan to create the vegetation required by the voles to allow their translocation to the new site. We carried out phase one of the planting project this year and phase two will commence in spring 2019.”

During phase one of the project, TES elected to use mature plants with some coir rolls, grown especially for water vole habitats, along with reeds translocated from elsewhere on the site. All of the plants were grown and produced at the company’s own aquatic nursery in Surrey where numerous marginal, aquatic plants and coir rolls are grown.

David Housden, Head of Engineering at the Port of Tilbury said: “We are very pleased with the work the TES team has carried out so far on the Tilbury2 project. The team provided deliverable solutions to ensure the success of the project and provided a soft engineering approach that would offer habitat which is as well-developed as possible for the water voles.”

TES is a leading supplier of products and marginal and oxygenating plants for use in Habitat Schemes, Bioengineering and Erosion Control industries. With unrivalled knowledge and extensive in-house capabilities, TES’ services support clients to create ecologically superior environments. The team is able to help clients plan and create bespoke wetland habitats which meet environmental specifications as well as remaining practical and enjoyable spaces to use.