Highways Crewe Green Link Road (South) Environmental Statement Volume 2, Main Statement Crewe Green Link Road South Crewe, Cheshire October 2012 B1772401/OD/38 Highways Page Not Used B1772401-OD38 ES final for approval .doc Highways Originated by Checked by Reviewed by Approved by ORIGINAL NAME NAME NAME NAME Simon Bird Elinor Phillips Elinor Phillips Rosie Simon DATE 18/10/12 INITIALS INITIALS INITIALS INITIALS Draft Document Status REVISION NAME NAME NAME NAME DATE INITIALS INITIALS INITIALS INITIALS Document Status REVISION NAME NAME NAME NAME DATE INITIALS INITIALS INITIALS INITIALS Document Status REVISION NAME NAME NAME NAME DATE INITIALS INITIALS INITIALS INITIALS Document Status Jacobs U.K. Limited This document has been prepared by a division, subsidiary or affiliate of Jacobs U.K. Limited (“Jacobs”) in its professional capacity as consultants in accordance with the terms and conditions of Jacobs’ contract with the commissioning party (the “Client”). 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Highways Page Not Used Highways Contents 1 Introduction 1-1 1.1 Introduction 1-1 1.2 Site Description 1-1 1.3 Legal Requirements for Environmental Impact Assessment 1-2 2 Background 2-1 2.1 Background to the scheme 2-1 2.2 Scheme History 2-1 2.3 Consideration of Alternatives 2-1 3 Description of Proposal 3-1 3.1 Introduction 3-1 3.2 Description of Proposed Development 3-1 3.3 Description of Construction 3-4 4 Assessment Methodology and Consultation Process 4-1 4.1 Approach to the Environmental Impact Assessment 4-1 4.2 Record of Consultation 4-6 5 Landscape and Visual Impact 5-1 5.1 Introduction and Study Area 5-1 5.2 Relevant Legislative, Plans and Polices Background 5-1 5.3 Methodology 5-3 5.4 Consultation 5-4 5.5 Baseline Description and Evaluation 5-4 5.6 Impacts – Construction 5-9 5.7 Impacts – Operation 5-11 5.8 Mitigation 5-12 5.9 Residual impacts 5-13 5.10 Monitoring and management 5-14 5.11 Summary 5-15 6 Ecology 6-1 6.1 Introduction and Study Area 6-1 6.2 Methodology 6-3 6.3 Consultation 6-12 6.4 Baseline Description and Evaluation 6-12 6.5 Assessment of Impacts – Construction 6-26 6.6 Assessment of Impacts – Operation 6-38 6.7 Mitigation 6-42 6.8 Residual impacts 6-49 6.9 Determination of Significance of effects 6-54 Highways 6.10 Monitoring and management 6-54 6.11 Summary 6-55 6.12 References 6-57 7 Cultural Heritage 7-1 7.1 Introduction and Study Area 7-1 7.2 Relevant Legislative, Plans and Policies Background 7-1 7.3 Methodology 7-4 7.4 Consultation 7-8 7.5 Baseline Description and Evaluation 7-9 7.6 Impacts – Construction 7-16 7.7 Impacts – Operation 7-19 7.8 Mitigation 7-21 7.9 Residual impacts 7-22 7.10 Monitoring and management 7-24 7.11 Summary 7-25 7.12 References 7-25 8 Air Quality 8-1 8.1 Introduction and Study Area 8-1 8.2 Relevant Legislative, Plans and Polices Background 8-1 8.3 Methodology 8-2 8.4 Baseline Description and Evaluation 8-5 8.5 Impacts – Construction 8-8 8.6 Impacts – Operation 8-10 8.7 Mitigation 8-13 8.8 Residual impacts 8-14 8.9 Monitoring and management 8-15 8.10 Summary 8-15 8.11 References 8-15 9 Noise and Vibration 9-17 9.1 Introduction and Study Area 9-17 9.2 Relevant Legislative, Plans and Polices Background 9-17 9.3 Legislation 9-20 9.4 Methodology 9-20 9.5 Assessment of Significance of Effects 9-24 9.6 Consultation 9-27 9.7 Baseline Description and Evaluation 9-28 9.8 Construction Impacts 9-30 9.9 Impacts – Operation 9-33 9.10 Mitigation 9-40 9.11 Residual impacts 9-41 9.12 Monitoring and management 9-42 9.13 Summary 9-42 10 Soils, Geology and Hydrogeology 10-1 Highways 10.1 Introduction and Study Area 10-1 10.2 Relevant Legislation Plans and Polices Background 10-1 10.3 Methodology 10-2 10.4 Consultation 10-4 10.5 Baseline Description and Evaluation 10-5 10.6 Impacts – Construction 10-10 10.7 Impacts – Operation 10-12 10.8 Mitigation 10-12 10.9 Residual impacts 10-13 10.10 Monitoring and management 10-1 10.11 Summary 10-1 10.12 References 10-1 11 The Water Environment 11-1 11.1 Introduction and Study Area 11-1 11.2 Relevant Legislative, Plans and Policies Background 11-1 11.3 Consultation 11-3 11.4 Methodology 11-4 11.5 Baseline Description and Evaluation 11-8 11.6 Importance of Attributes 11-12 11.7 Predicted Environmental Impacts 11-13 11.8 Mitigation 11-16 11.9 Residual impacts 11-18 11.10 Monitoring and management 11-21 11.11 Summary 11-21 12 Effects on All Travellers 12-23 12.1 Introduction and Study Area 12-23 12.2 Relevant Legislative, Plans and Policies Background 12-23 12.3 Consultation 12-24 12.4 Methodology 12-24 12.5 Baseline Description and Evaluation 12-27 12.6 Impacts – Construction 12-31 12.7 Impacts – Operation 12-33 12.8 Mitigation 12-40 12.9 Residual impacts 12-41 12.10 Monitoring and management 12-42 12.11 Summary 12-42 13 Community and Private Assets 13-1 13.1 Introduction and Study Area 13-1 13.2 Relevant Legislative, Plans and Policies Background 13-2 13.3 Methodology 13-3 13.4 Consultation 13-6 13.5 Baseline Description and Evaluation 13-6 13.6 Impacts – Construction 13-11 Highways 13.7 Impacts – Operation 13-14 13.8 Mitigation 13-14 13.9 Residual impacts 13-16 13.10 Summary 13-1 14 Cumulative Impacts 14-1 14.1 Introduction 14-1 14.2 Scope and Methodology 14-1 14.3 Assessment of the Cumulative effects from the Development Itself 14-2 14.4 Assessment of the Cumulative effects of other developments 14-3 14.5 Summary of Effects 14-4 15 Environmental Action Plan 15-1 Figures 15-1 Highways 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction Cheshire East Council (CEC) is bringing forward proposals for a new link road between the Western Gate roundabout and A500, located to the south east of Crewe. This link road is known as ‘Crewe Green Link Road South’, which will be referred to as CGLRS throughout this report. This would complete the southern section of the link road between A534 and A500. The northern section of this link road was opened in 2004. CEC undertook an environmental assessment of this link road, which was reported in the Planning and Environmental Statement (PES) that supported the planning application submitted in June 2011. This will be referred to as the PES through the report. Planning permission was granted in October 2011. This planning application did not include the areas required for the borrow pit, flood compensation and temporary site compounds. As a consequence, a new planning application and supporting Environmental Statement have been produced to include these additional areas. This document is volume 2 of the Environmental Statement (ES) that has been prepared to inform consideration of the planning application for the link road development. The ES comprises: • Volume 1: Non Technical Summary (NTS); • Volume 2: Main Statement; and • Volume 3: Technical Appendices and supporting information.