M3 safety clearance job

EGD services ltd were approached by our client clearance works on a section of wood land running along the M3 motorway, after a tree fell into motorway property. the client engaged there preferred third party arboricultural surveyor to assess the wooded areas and report back with a management plan.

The overall health of the trees where fair but the soil was clearly unable to support root plates, the majority of the trees in striking distance of the highway where supressed and leaning toward the carriageway the client took swift action to ensure there where no reoccurring tree failures.

EGD services ltd were awarded the task of caring out the management plan.

The remit was to remove trees over 15m with in 15m of boundary and trees over 25 within 25m where to be removed to mitigate any future issue with falling trees entering highways ground.

while surveying the stock in the woodland we determent that stock to be left that fell out of the specification was so few and were suppressed and of poor form it was soon apparent 20-25 m sway from boundary fence through length of problem area was the only solution.

Access to the site meandered through gravel tracks and inclined off camber grass rides that required minimal traffic to preserve there condition.

work commenced using our Unimog chipper m.e.w.p combination lift any required limbs on the access route for equipment ingress and create access point from field into wooded area.

we used a 22T excavator and shear combination to tackle the tall skinny prominently birch and ash. We utilised our smaller tree shear attached to our tracked loader to remove leggy interwoven hazel understory, make room for the excavator to work. The loader with attached the Shear grab and rotate followed the followed behind the excavator skidding and stack brash and timber for chipping and extraction.

We then moved back through the site to tackle the larger specimens out of the excavators capacity using assisted felling Technics. brash was chipped on site and spread to avoid rapid take over of weeds and later improve soil composition, this also reduces the impact on the few miles of grass rides through grounds of the estate that would have occurred if extracted for bio mass.

The stem wood was to be extracted for milling and fire wood on a weather dependent basis to preserve the condition of the rides through the estate.

we where able to identify a couple of mature oaks that in the sway area that pre dated the motorway construction. with a predominant lean away from the carriage way and was rooted in established soil rather than spoil from the motor way construction that where retained.