Introduction

Temple has and continues to work across the entire project in various roles, working directly with HS2 Ltd., DfT and other partners providing cutting edge expert environmental, planning and sustainability services.

Temple, as a lead consultancy in the ETM consortium, was appointed to provide Environmental Impact Assessment advisory services throughout the design development process to produce area specific Environmental Statements to support the hybrid Bill for two contract areas – London Metropolitan and Country South. The Country South area covered the route from the Colne Valley, just south of the M25, to the south Northamptonshire border. We also supported the Client and DfT through the parliamentary hybrid Bill process in the House of Commons and House of Lords.

What was the challenge?

• One of the tightest EIA programmes for a project of this scale (20 months), and five subsequent additional provisions and four supplementary environmental statements from 2014 to 2015
• Numerous topographic, engineering and environmental constraints including crossing or running along existing major transport corridors, such as the M25 and Chilterns line
• The route in the Country South area passed through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and included significant amounts of tunnelling through the AONB to avoid visual impacts and the associated management of tunnel materials
• The route in this area also passed through, and near, several SSSIs and environmentally sensitive sites, such as a colony of one of the UK’s rarest mammals Bechstein’s bat
• High profile project with numerous affected land and property owners, crossing a number of administrative and local government boundaries, interested stakeholder groups, major organisations and NGOs.

What was our solution?

Co-location within the same office was a key aspect of the successful integration of the team, particularly the parliamentary process. The design team were able to share ideas, discuss and constructively challenge examining potential advantages/disadvantages prior to formal design approval.

Engineering section managers and environmental Route Window Managers (EIA Coordinators) had responsibility for the same section of the route. This ensured an established point of contact to critically evaluate design decisions before formal inclusion into the design.

Initially, sections of the route were divided between a large series of engineering features. This was reconsidered to assign the responsibility for each section by Community Forum Area which formed the basis of the Volume 2 ES reports.

Having an experienced EIA Coordinator assigned to each community forum area with knowledge of the area on hand to integrate emerging mitigation solutions into the design.

Aligning the engineering and environmental assessment programmes was a key aspect of the successful delivery. Key stages of the assessment were aligned to various control points or design freezes which was essential to integrate the mitigation response into the design.

What was the conclusion? 

Initial work on the EIA started in early 2012 and the draft Environmental Statement was published online for consultation in May 2013. The main Environmental Statement was submitted on 25 November 2013. The work on the ES was completed within 20 months which is an incomparable accomplishment for an infrastructure scheme of this size.

This, and our leading contribution to the parliamentary select committee process meant that the High Speed London to West Midlands Act achieved Royal Assent in 2017 having passed all parliamentary hurdles. The enabling works began later in 2017.

The ‘go ahead’ for the major civil construction works was announced by the Prime Minister in February 2020.