Relief as waste site escapes path of High Speed 2
13 January 2012
The head of the West London Waste Authority has expressed relief that plans for the High Speed 2 rail line will not affect the authority’s waste transfer station in Ruislip.
-
- An artists impression of a train on the high speed line between Birmingham and London
There were concerns that the proposed track for the government’s high-speed line between Birmingham and London might encroach upon WLWA’s Victoria Road transfer station. This was a worry because the site is one of just a few locations which the Authority is offering for the development of long-term residual waste treatment infrastructure under its up and coming residual waste treatment contract.
However, plans released by the Department for Transport this week (January 10) show that the section of track running through Ruislip will largely be in tunnels underground, and will therefore not cause a problem.
‘Good result’
Speaking to letsrecycle.com following Tuesday’s announcement, WLWA director Jim Brennan said: “The plans appear to be a very good result for us and we are pleased that the government has listened to our representations. If the rail line had gone overground it would have cut through the edge of our site, we would have been looking at a 10 or 15% ground-take. At the moment, it all looks very positive.”
Thefour hectare- site currently handles around 156,000 tonnes of residual waste per year, which is delivered in from the London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow and Hillingdon where it is then loaded onto trains to be taken to a landfill site in Buckinghamshire.
Discussions
Mr Brennan explained that the WLWA will continue discussing the proposals with the government to ensure that the Ruislip site will not be affected by any other aspects of the high speed line.
-
- Proposals for the line to tunnel under the waste transfer station in West Ruislip have been welcomed by the WLWA
He said: “Victoria Road is an important site to us as it is well located with good rail access. The HS2 proposals appear to minimise the impact on our site and future plans. We have been meeting with the HS2 team and they have been very helpful and we will meet with them again next week to make sure that there are no other restrictions that will affect us and to see how they are going to construct the tunnel.”
The waste transfer station is one of three which had been offered to bidders as part of the procurement of its £500 million residual waste contract, alongside sites at Brentford and Park Royal.
WLWA announced a shortlist of four bidders for the contract in December (see letsrecycle.com story) but had warned the bidders of the potential impact of the high speed line on its operations.
Mr Brennan explained that WLWA had been in discussion with the short listed bidders - Cory Environmental, SITA, Viridor and a consortium lead by E.ON Energy from Waste - earlier this week. The WLWA is expecting detailed plans to be submitted by each of the bidders in April 2012, with the shortlist likely to be reduced to two this summer.
TwitterFollow us on twitter
linkedinFollow us on linkedin