Highways Agency

00001

A500 Basford, Hough, Shavington Bypass

A500 Basford Hough Shavington Bypass

A500 Opening of Basford Hough Shavington Bypass

This month sees the opening of the A500 Basford Hough Shavington Bypass. About 80% of all traffic, including a large proportion of heavy goods vehicles, will be taken off the existing A500 bringing improved road safety for residents and users. The scheme complements local, regional and national planning policies by creating opportunities for new employment areas north of the bypass alongside the West Coast Main Line railway.

Challenges Overcome

In the summer of 2001, work began to construct the dual carriageway between Meremoor Moss and Cheerbrook roundabout thereby easing congestion through the villages of Basford, Hough and Shavington.

Just over 22 months later and despite the start date being delayed several months due to the national Foot and Mouth outbreak, the road is now ready to open to motorists, some 4 months ahead of the planned completion date.

Major achievements during the building of the bypass include:

• the construction and launching into place of a 200m long bridge over the railway.
• moving 700,000 cubic metres of earth.
• environmental works involving the creation of 12 newt ponds, a badger sett and planting 19,500 trees.
• the construction of 4 new bridges across the bypass, 2 new farm accommodation bridges, a new combined footway/cycleway bridge and 9 new culverts.
• the full re-construction of Rope Lane in front of Shavington High School.

Crossing the West Coast Mainline

One of the major engineering achievements on the scheme was the successful completion of the London Crewe Railway Bridge. The bridge was constructed away from the railway line and launched across the tracks on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The launch itself could only be undertaken during a 48 hour rail possession over Christmas 2001.

Included in the scheme, has been the construction of 3 overbridges to carry the three main side roads (Rope Lane, Crewe Road and Main Road) over the new bypass.

The bridges were built alongside the existing roads without the need for traffic management and once they were completed traffic was diverted onto the new bridges with minimum disruption.

Looking after the Landscape and its Occupants

The new bypass will have a variety of effects on the landscape along its route. Some vegetation has been lost, new structures introduced and some parts of the route are in cutting and others on embankment. All of these have had aneffect on the environment. A variety of landscape treatments have been adopted to blend the bypass into its surroundings.

These consist of:

• thousands of new trees and shrubs planted as hedgerows, dense woodland areas, or more open treatments such as intermittent groups of trees.
• open grass areas including many areas with wild flowers.
• in some locations earth mounds have been formed beside the bypass to provide immediate screening for relevant views of the route - generally these have been planted to soften their appearance and integrate their shapes with their surroundings.

There were a number of ecological challenges encountered in the construction of the bypass :

• many of the ponds in the area were shown to contain great crested newts. Before any construction could be undertaken a programme of trapping and translocation to new areas had to be undertaken under licence from DEFRA.
• some of the existing ponds were lost and therefore new ponds were constructed to compensate for this. There is actually a net increase in the number of ponds and associated great crested newt habitat as a result of the scheme.
• Protected white clawed crayfish and water voles were found in Basford Brook. The crossing of the brook necessitated trapping and relocating them to new habitats away from the construction work.
• badgers are present in the area and a new badger sett has been constructed to compensate for the effects of the new road. In addition, badger proof fencing and wildlife tunnels under the road have been provided.

Location Map of Bypass

Select any part of map to access larger diagram

This map is reproduced from Ordnance Survey material by the Highways Agency Traffic and Operations Division with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, � Crown Copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings.
Licence number 100018928.

Community and Communications

Considerate Constructors

The A500 Basford Hough Shavington Bypass site has received a Gold 2003 National Award from the Considerate Constructors Scheme.

The award was presented to Kevin Lucas - Project Manager, Mowlem in April at an award ceremony at Crewe Hall.

The award is in recognition of running a scheme that demonstrates that the Highways Agency and it's contractors put environmental sensitivity and public health and safety at the top of our agenda.

Community Relations

Liaison with the public started with a 2 day public exhibition held in the local village hall where key members of staff were present to answer questions and talk to people about concerns they may have had.

Regular meetings with the Headmaster at Shavington High School have taken place and a safety talk was given to all the pupils before construction work in that area started. Talks on site safety have also been given to several local scouts groups. The youngsters were shown a video outlining the dangers of playing on a construction site and given a talk on the safety aspects and construction of a major project like the A500 Basford Hough Shavington Bypass.

Several site visits have taken place. County, Borough and Parish Councillors visited the site and were given the opportunity to see at first hand how the project was being managed within the local community.

Regular newsletters have been distributed locally to keep people up to date with progress, forthcoming activities, environmental matters, people involved in the scheme and any other general news.

Facts and Figures

Start date	2nd April 2001
Entry onto site	Mid June 2001
Contractual completion date	End of September 2003
Length of scheme	7.5 kilometres
Scheme cost	�28 million
Standard	Dual 2 lane all purpose carriageway
Fencing	19 kilometres
Excavation	700,000 cubic metres
Drainage pipeline	29 kilometres
Stone	140,000 tonnes
Blacktop	122,000 tonnes
Concrete	7,700 cubic
Bridges	8
New ponds	12
Badger setts	1
Mammal tunnels	7
Trees planted	19,500