Cranleigh Brickworks 2.0 - The Big Restart

With the protected species from the central zones of the site being relocated, to receptor areas just outside of the earthworks boundary, the central zones  became available to the earthworks programme. To this end the site was reopened to lorries on 17th October 2016 as the main earthworks phase of the project gets underway.
The topsoil has been removed and saved for dressing the finished surfaces later. On areas where surface contamination was a concern, it was stripped and moved to designated areas within the site for encapsulation. The area chosen will be capped with 10m of cover as part of the reprofiled topography, ensuring the contaminants are contained.
A series of fabric wrapped land drains have been installed over the existing ground, these act as a ‘last line of defence’ for any surface water finding its way through the layered restoration, water within these drains will be collected and treated in a long-term leachate treatment facility to be built later in the project at the bottom of the site. A layer of imported soils has been placed over the top of the drains and exposed ground to trap any surface fibres which might remain, as well as to divert significant quantities of clean rainfall from becoming polluted by contact with  chemical contamination within the underlying ground. A temporary pond will also be created later  to collect this clean rainfall runoff for direct discharge to the river system.
Over the remainder of the project further soil  will continue to be placed such that clean rainfall runoff is eventually diverted to a restored quarry which will become a multipurpose flood attenuation, recreational and ecological water body.  The whole site will then be dressed with a suitable growing medium to allow plant and wildlife to flourish.