Reducing flood risk in Oxford: environmental surveys and archaeological investigations
Published 23 March 2017
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The project team has carried out various surveys to gain a better understanding of the scheme area and help plan for construction.
Ecological surveys allow the design to maximise the potential benefits to wildlife the scheme can deliver, and minimise or mitigate any negative impacts. The team has dug trial pits in the scheme area and will monitor these to get a better understanding of the ground conditions and groundwater levels along the route of the scheme. The trial pits will remain in place until the scheme is constructed.
This is the status of the surveys:
| Ecological survey | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Plant surveys | complete |
| Badgers | complete |
| Aquatic invertebrates | complete |
| Aquatic plants | complete |
| Ecological trial pits | ongoing |
| Reptiles | ongoing |
| Great crested newt | complete |
| Wintering birds | complete |
| Water voles and otters | complete |
| Bats | complete |
| Fish | complete |
| Invasive plants | complete |
| River habitat surveys | planned for spring 2017 |
| Breeding birds | planned for spring 2017 |
| Dormice | planned for spring 2017 |
| Tree surveys | planned for spring 2017 |
The project team has also completed other topographical surveys and is using a variety of techniques to explore the underlying ground and identify archaeological artefacts. These include using the magnetic properties of the ground, electromagnetic waves and digging boreholes.
Archaeological investigations on Old Abingdon Road were finished in early December 2016. Part of the Old Abingdon Road is believed to be a continuation of a medieval causeway with Anglo-Saxon origins called the Grandpont. The Environment Agency needs to carry out archaeological evaluation now to avoid additional disruption and delay to this area later in the scheme. There will be a second series of archaeological investigations in spring 2017.