M60 widening scoops new environmental award

A £140million project to widen the M60 has become the first ever motorway scheme to win a prestigious environmental award.

The Highways Agency's work between Junction 5 at Northenden and 8 at Stretford was rewarded with the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment (CEEQUAL) Award at the Institution of Highways and Transportation's North West annual dinner last Friday (18 May.)

The CEEQUAL scheme rewards projects for high environmental quality, sustainability in design, and best practice in construction. It was developed through a major project led by the institution of Civil Engineers.

The scheme was a joint venture carried out between contractors AMEC and Alfred McAlpine. It received an 'excellent' rating in 12 categories of environmental assessments - all of which were carefully scrutinised.

Assessors praised the project, which was completed in June 2006, for its 'above and beyond' efforts to take environmental issues into account.

Highways Agency project manager Graham Dakin said:

"This award is great news for everyone at the Highways Agency and our contractors. It has recognised our efforts to make a huge project as environmentally friendly as possible.

"We are the first motorway scheme to achieve this award is a great honour. Hopefully it will set the standard for future projects."

The key environmental issues mentioned were:
Recycling and re-using excavated materials
Planting 126,000 trees
Creating new wildlife and wetland areas
Adapting and re-using existing structures on the site
Reducing noise
And relocating a listed building from the site.

The CEEQUAL awards hope to encourage more environmentally sound schemes and provide a standard for all civil engineering projects to aspire to.