Image: Volodymyr Byrdyak/Dreamstime.com
Network Rail has found a new way of delivering major upgrade projects without harming badgers living by the railway.
The rail infrastructure operator’s announcement coincides with National Badger Week (25 June-2 July).
Network Rail has been installing structures which will carry new overhead electricity lines between London Liverpool Street and Southend Victoria – but was concerned that the foundations would affect badger setts along the route.
Standard practice is to carry out an ecology survey early in the project. However, rather than apply for a licence to move any badgers potentially affected by construction activity, Network Rail instead used the survey to decide where the foundations should be located, so that the work would not affect the animals at all.
Adriaan Bekker, Network Rail’s environmental manager for Anglia, said: “We should always consider wildlife at the design stage and how to avoid disturbing it and avoid risks and delays to the project before construction starts.
"Being able to work at the railway design stage to avoid the need to relocate badgers is a major environmental breakthrough and cost saving, which we would like to see rolled out across the rail network."
Dominic Dyer, Badger Trust
“Providing design engineers with simple technical information from the environmental report has enabled them to design a railway that considered the wildlife already living around it, rather than trying to move the badgers away.
“This has saved a lot of time and money on the project and meant that the badgers can keep their homes.”
Network Rail said it was now looking to use the same approach on other projects.
Dominic Dyer, CEO of the Badger Trust, said: “We would like congratulate Network Rail in using ecological survey information to construct railway foundations that do not threaten badgers or their setts. Being able to work at the railway design stage to avoid the need to relocate badgers is a major environmental breakthrough and cost saving, which we would like to see rolled out across the rail network.”
Badgers are commonly found along the railway network and create homes in embankments and many other areas of railway land. Network Rail said that routine operations, maintenance or infrastructure project activities can impact on badger territories and cause destruction of setts and feeding habitat.
Failure to identify or account for badger occurrence can mean a heavy fine or even a prison sentence, as they have significant legal protection in Britain, including their own Act of Parliament: the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.
