Contaminated land remediated for new Homes England development

Twenty hotspot areas of former contaminated land have been remediated ahead of the construction of a Homes England development in the old RAF Oakington base in Cambridgeshire.

CR Civil Engineering, a groundworks contractor that is part of the RSK Group, worked with main contractor CR MacDonald on a 12-month project to deliver the site preparation work across 25 hectares, which is part of the wider 165-hectare Northstowe new town.

The project involved clearing and remediating a large earthworks operation at the former RAF base while minimising the environmental impact. Homes England has committed to achieving 15% biodiversity net gain in the later phases of the development (5% higher than the compulsory 10%).

CR Civil Engineering operations manager, Paul Saysell, explained: “As part of our waste and resource management strategy, we were able to put more than 80,000 tonnes of surplus concrete, brick and unsuitable soils back into use as fill by processing and reusing all the material on site, using crushers and screens to produce usable (6F5 and Class 2) fill and avoiding a huge quantity of waste.

“Only the contaminated waste and scrap steel have been sent to specialist offsite waste processing centres, a hugely significant reduction of the waste the project could have generated.

“Working with team arborists, we have also retained 11 hectares of mature trees, with more than 50 young trees kept for potential future translocation. The project also made 20 hotspot areas of former contaminated land safe. These efforts all support the broader sustainability goals of the Northstowe masterplan.”

CR Civil Engineering worked with other RSK Group companies on the project, including RSK Raw for the environmental and remediation work, ATV Contract Services for the vegetation clearance and ecological supervision, and Central Alliance for the ground radar surveys.

Saysell added: “The Northstowe project is a great example of how civil engineering can support regeneration, bringing significant areas of brownfield land back into use and helping to address the UK’s housing shortage.”

Homes England technical services assistant director, Philip Harker, said: “This development is a prime example of how we are working collaboratively with partners, CR Civil Engineering and RSK Group, to deliver the homes people need while embedding environmental sustainability at the heart of the project. This approach ensures that future generations will benefit from a well-planned and resilient community.”