Working the site

The site has been subdivided by Greenfield Environmental Ltd into phases to be worked sequentially. Each will be worked in a series of individual 7-10 week campaigns: excavation will not be year-round, and later phases would remain in agricultural use until required. The excavation will take 5-7 years in total.

 

The site will be worked using standard excavators loading the material into dump trucks for transport to the processing plant. No blasting is required.

 

The first activity is the initial topsoil and overburden strip, where the topsoil and subsoil is carefully removed for later use in the restoration, and stored in designated stockpiles based on the soil type and quality - much of this soil will be used as screening bunds to reduce the noise and visual impact of the development. The Sand & Gravel is then excavated until the base of the deposit is reached.

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As more of the deposit is excavated, it will become possible to 'direct place' the soil and overburden from the current phase into the void left after the previous phase's extraction, thus reducing vehicle movements on site and achieving the restoration more quickly. This means that only one part of the site will have active extraction ongoing at any one time, and restoration will be achieved as rapidly as possible.