We are thrilled to announce that Ecologia and BAM were awarded the  2016 Brownfield  Briefing  award  for  the  Best Re-use of Material  in  relation  to  the Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project.

This is a flagship site for the RSPB, who partnered with Crossrail to provide an innovative, sustainable solution to reusing Crossrail construction spoil from across London to create a new wetland nature reserve.

Crossrail is one of the most significant infrastructure projects undertaken in the UK and includes 42km of new tunnels beneath central London, which has required a materials and logistical management exercise rarely attempted at such a scale in the UK previously. BAM Nuttall was appointed to implement these works and they employed Ecologia as materials management and contamination specialists.

The project demonstrated an innovative and progressive approach to how waste material from large scale infrastructure projects can be put to beneficial reuse in a sustainable manner.

The site is located eight miles north of Southend-on-Sea and covers a total area of 677 hectares of reclaimed saltmarsh. The project is a landmark conservation and engineering scheme for the 21^st Century, and is the largest of its type in Europe.  The scheme combined ecological research and environmental vision with commerce and innovative industrial engineering for the benefit of future generations.

The project was completed within budget, 12 months ahead of original programme, with a ‘right-first-time’ approach. Phase 1, latterly named ‘Jubilee Marsh’ by the RSPB was opened to the public earlier than anticipated, in September 2015.