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Strategic Rail Freight Interchange - EM Gateway

Strategic Rail Freight Interchange - EM Gateway

KEY FACTS

CLIENT

Roxhill Developments

YEAR COMPLETED

2020

BUILD TYPE

New Build

SERVICES PROVIDED

Civil Engineering
Earthworks
Flood Risk
Rail Track
Transport Planning
Infrastructure Design

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

East Midlands Gateway Strategic Rail Freight Interchange delivers 6 million sq. ft. of rail and road served warehousing, creating up to 7000 jobs. The scope includes extensive highway works including major improvements to M1 junction 24 and provision of a new bypass for the village of Kegworth.

BWB was involved extensively in this significant infrastructure project, providing engineering advice on transportation, highways, flooding and also playing a key role in the production of the Development Consent Order (DCO). In the early stages of developing the DCO, BWB set up and chaired the transport working group for the scheme, which included representatives from the 6 highway authorities. The working group was set up with all of the highway authorities that cover or are close to EMG, given its location adjacent to M1 junction 24 and close to 3 county borders. The working group was successful in steering the production of the complex, multi-modal transport issues dealt with by the Transport Assessment (TA). TA and related ES chapters were produced to the satisfaction of all the participating highway authorities.

HS2 Impacts: The announcement of the initial route for the Leeds leg of HS2 was made during the early DCO consultation stage. The published line included a tunnel beneath East Midlands Airport and the northern portal was located centrally in the development, effectively bisecting the site and jeopordising the viability of the proposals. BWB was instrumental in developing technically feasible alternative route options for HS2, including extension of the airport tunnel, in order to protect the EM Gateway project status and viability. The HS2 team were able to agree to the tunnel extension option, allowing both projects to move forward through their respective planning processes.

Flood Risk: BWB have prepared the Flood Risk Assessment and related ES chapter for the development and the associated rail and highway works. This involved extensive watercourse modelling for both local watercourses and the Rivers Soar and Trent to assist in developing flood risk mitigation acceptable to the Environment Agency.

Major Highway Interfaces: BWB has designed the extensive highway works in sufficient detail to permit preparation of the Order plans required as part of the DCO.

Key Challenges

The works are tightly constrained and the design process required agreement of several departures from geometric standards with the Highways Agency.

Earthworks Strategy: BWB's earthworks strategy for the main development site involves the movement of 4 million cubic metres of material whilst achieving an on-site cut/fill balance.

KEY CONTACTS

Simon Hilditch

Simon Hilditch
Technical Manager
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