In late 2018 award-winning Land & Water Group gained consent for developing a habitat creation scheme on the River Thames at Rainham Marshes, the largest habitat creation project ever constructed inside the M25 and London’s biggest wildlife haven. The project involves creating a significant area of new wetland habitat from re-engineered spoils, coupled with a strategic investment in riverside infrastructure to support significant projects along the Thames Corridor for decades to come.

This summer, Land & Water has started handling the main tunnel drive spoils from the Thames Tideway Tunnel project at its river-side marine logistics centre, Coldharbour Lane Wharf. The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) is initially producing material at a rate of approximately 2000t/day. Land & Water is receiving material in 1500t barges and unloads one to two barges a day. The team will be working to tight deadlines and work has been scheduled to cope with peak tunnelling production. From the wharf, the waste spoils and material will then be shipped to the group’s adjacent habitat creation site at Rainham Marshes. The material is London Clay and will be used to begin the restoration on the North East corner of site with the ultimate aim of creating natural rainwater harvesting wetlands as per the company’s restoration plan. A new access road and weighbridge facility have also been built and new offices and welfare units will be arriving to the site soon.  

The wharf has three berths in total. Berth’s one and two will be dedicated to Tideway whilst berth three will be supporting major projects managed by Land & Water Services. One of these projects is a dredging campaign which will be carried out for Cemex at Dagenham Quay.

Land & Water Services will also be busy at its Enderby Wharf site where the team is working to create a bio diverse intertidal terrace zone. This will be planted up with a variety of native plant species to an estuarian environment. This will encourage plant and animal species to the location which was previously devoid of both. This is part of a wider strategy for offering a green stepping stone of habitats and wildlife havens for the tidal Thames. The work is being carried out on behalf of Townshend Landscape Architects.

James Maclean, CEO at Land & Water comments: “As part of our 25^th Anniversary celebrations we are looking towards the future and the important aspect of our work in safeguarding and improving environments for future generations to enjoy. An integral part of this plan has been to invest in UK infrastructure, building end-to-end relationships with key partners.

Our new wharf is helping us to use the River Thames more intellectually, transporting construction materials by water. Development Chiefs at Tideway have estimated that by using this method of transportation for the London Super Sewer, we are taking an estimated 200 lorries of London’s roads each day. This is something we are really proud of and delighted to play our part in.”