National Highways spending £2 million on greener A303 verges
They're aiming to improve habitats from Amesbury to Andover
Funding from National Highways is helping improve the biodiversity and enhance the habitats for wildlife around the A303 in Wiltshire and Hampshire.
Over £2 million is being invested by the company responsible for the Major A roads and motorways in England from its Environment and wellbeing fund.
It will be used to bring wildflowers to the verges of the A303 between Amesbury and Andover, while also restoring a section of the River Avon.
£1.5 million is going towards creating and restoring 8.45 hectares of grasslands on the roadsides, while £500,000 is backing a Wessex Rivers Trust scheme to enhance the River Avon between Durrington and Lord’s Walk in Amesbury.
National Highways’ Environmental Advisor Ben Hewlett said:
“The increase in wildflowers will not only have wider biodiversity benefits and provide some impressive visual displays, but it will reduce long-term maintenance costs and reduce our carbon footprint through fewer maintenance visits.
“Species-rich verges and roadsides will also help to connect people with nature and improve the wellbeing of millions of people using our roads every day.”
Preparatory work is already underway on the roadside scheme, which includes part of the Salisbury Plain Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Once the first phase of clearance and felling work has been completed this month, planting will commence in the spring.
The project supports the National Pollinators’ Strategy and National Highways’ target of no net loss of biodiversity by 2025, with the aim of creating an ecological buffer and a network of species rich environments for butterflies, bees and other pollinators.
The river restoration project will seek to improve the quality of the chalk stream habitats associated with the Avon, which will help the likes of Atlantic salmon and water voles.
The installation of bridges over the Countess roundabout in the 1960s caused major damage to the banks and beds of the Avon, which this project aims to rectified.
This has already been completed in a section of river upstream of the A303, with the next phase scheduled for next year.
Initially, gravels will be added to the dredged riverbed and woody materials added to optimise the cross sectional carrying capacity of the river channel and to promote hydraulic activity within the river.
Matt Irvine, Wessex Rivers Trust’s Senior Project Officer, said:
“This exciting project aims to improve nearly two miles of rare chalk stream habitat and improve fish passage upstream.