The Terminal 5 development at Heathrow Airport was, at the time, the largest construction project in Europe. The site occupied 260 hectares of land from the M25 to the new terminal building. The project required the realignment of two rivers, the restoration of the Colne Valley and the construction of an ‘urban parkland campus’.
Landscape environments included over 4000 semi-mature trees and multi-stemmed shrubs in hard and soft landscape environments, 450,000 shrubs in planting beds and extensive vertical ‘Green Walls’ and species-rich wildflower grassland establishment. Given its location, history and the demands of the project, the site presented various challenges.
Tim O’Hare was the project Soil Scientist for the Terminal 5 development. The soil specification and management design ensured that soils with the appropriate qualities and function were used within each landscape type.
The project included the manufacture of over 140,000m³ of topsoil from recycling site-won soil materials, including river dredgings and tunnel arisings. This demonstrated a sustainable approach and attributed to significant cost savings to the project by reducing reliance on landfill disposal.
This project is a good example of where soil creation techniques can be applied to high demand landscape environments and where co-ordination with other disciplines (ecology, engineering, landscape design, etc.) is essential.
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Terminal 5 Heathrow
The Terminal 5 development at Heathrow Airport, the largest construction project in Europe.
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British Sugar TOPSOIL
British Sugar TOSPOIL is the UK's largest supplier of quality topsoils to the construction
