Green thinking - Skanska

70 Local impactWhat can you do?Landscaping a highway.2 Case Study: Local impactLocation: A1 highway, northern Poland.Challenge: Construct a safe highwaythrough culturally andecologically sensitive areas.Completed: November 2008.So far, this book has shownsome of the things that canbe done. But we can doeven more. Join us on thejourney to Deep Green.The old two-lane highway was one of the most dangerous roads in all of Poland. It wasn’tbuilt for the current, heavy traffic. It passed right through towns and villages, creatingtraffic jams, making local communities unsafe and exposing the inhabitants to extensivepollution.In 2005, the first 56-mile/90-kilometer section of the new A1 highway was begun.Ultimately, the completed highway will cover 350 miles/560 kilometers from Gdansk inthe north to Poland’s southern border. The goal is a fast and safe connection, and thefinished road is expected to reduce travel time by 30 percent.The challenge was to minimize effects on the countryside, which is rich in culturalheritage and is also environmentally sensitive. About 60 percent of the road passesthrough or near protected cultural landscapes. For that reason, plantings and earthembankments were added to hide long stretches of the new road from view. Duringconstruction, historical buildings and other cultural heritage sites were protected.For example, the junction near the town of Pelplin was built from the opposite directionto keep dust and pollution away from the town’s cathedral.The new road cuts through four ecologically sensitive woodland and wetland areas.It grazes 1.8 miles/3 kilometers of a bird sanctuary that also includes animal migrationcorridors. At the start of the project, nature conservation experts and representatives ofenvironmental organizations were invited to discuss issues and make environmentalimpact analyses. They suggested special measures for some species, such as erectingelevated platforms for storks to nest on at a safe distance from the highway.These analyses also indicated the need for ecological corridors, which resultedin the building of nine passages under the highway for large animals and 20 passagesfor small animals such as lizards and frogs.Sand filters and separators were created to keep rainwater runoff from the highwayfrom polluting the sensitive surroundings.More than 100,000 trees and other vegetation were planted in a greenbelt alongthis section to obscure the road and dampen noise. An additional 65 feet/20 meters ofland was acquired on either side of the road – this will make it possible to provide anextra noise buffer, if it is determined that it’s needed in the future.Read more about the A1 project at skanska.com/a1poland.