Dering Way, Gravesend

For a number of years we have played an important role in implementing the ongoing development at Westcourt, in north east Gravesend, Kent. Our involvement has included infrastructure master planning and implementing a strategic infrastructure network to serve this new community of upto 1000 homes.

In opening up this site for development, we faced significant problems in relation to strategic access and ground conditions. Due to the deep alluvial deposits prevalent in the flood plain, a sophisticated embankment solution has been implemented to support the primary access, minimising settlement issues and thus allowing rapid development. In addition the primary access road has been strategically planned and designed to provide and delete future relief to the heavily saturated local road network, thus promoting the release of future development.

Because the site lies within the environmentally sensitive Thames flood plain, we devised innovative engineering solutions and developed a sustainable urban drainage system using the existing watercourses, which are SSSIs and a valuable ecological resource, to balance and carry away surface water run-off from the site. On the basis of extensive hydraulic modelling, these watercourses were re-profiled to provide additional wetland habitats, creating a drainage system which actively preserves and promotes aquatic biodiversity.