Slope Protection
SOUTH EAST TRAIN LINES, OXFORD TO CAMBRIDGE - SOUTH EAST - United Kingdom
NETWORK RAIL
BAM Nutall
ARUP
RAILWAY EMBANKMENT BURROWING PREVENTION
RAILWAY EMBANKMENT BURROWING PREVENTION
Anti-burrowing DT Mesh spread across rail embankment
Anti-burrowing DT Mesh deployed and secured
Area covered with the protective mesh
Problem
The East West Rail Alliance (EWRA) is a large project which plans to utilise the previously built and abandoned varsity railway line to re-build an upgraded line that links Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keynes and Bedford avoiding London.
The planned route covers an extensive distance consisting of diverse environmental challenges. As you progress through this countryside route, there is a variety of wildlife including a large amount of Badgers. Badgers are fantastic diggers and have many burrows at any given time. Occasionally badgers burrow underneath live rail embankments which can lead to collapse and delays in the line due to water ingress through the network of burrows deep into the embankment. The solution was to use our RenoMesh Mammal Anti-burrowing mesh.
Solution
Maccaferri’s Anti-Burrowing Mesh has been proven to be a strong rodent deterrent. Unlike any plastic grids or thin rabbit nettings, Maccaferri’s mesh can prevent larger rodents such as badgers and beavers from burrowing into embankments, river banks and other surfaces. The mesh is flexible woven ‘Double Twist’ mesh with a zinc-aluminium heavy-duty galvanising coating. This mesh is additionally coated with our advanced unique PoliMac® coating which is far more resistant to UV, abrasion, and offers a longer design life than traditional meshes. Maccaferri provided a total of 17,500m2 of the badger netting across the site.
Anti-burrowing mesh or more commonly known as Badger netting is a slope protection system to prevent slope deterioration from burrowing animals. Over the years Maccaferri have completed numerous studies with institutions that compared various anti-burrowing mesh interventions. Our RenoMesh Anti-Burrowing Mesh is the result of that research and provides environmentally friendly active protection against large rodents. Its mesh apertures were selected also to limit juvenile burrowing mammals.
Roll sizes of 4m x 25m mean large areas can quickly be covered with minimal jointing, speeding up installation time and limiting working time adjacent to the railway.