I am very pleased to report that this important and very longed for project has had the official start made with site preparation getting underway. From both ends of this project, which is 3km long, archaeologists are engaged on work firstly in the Garth area where the Western site compound and tunnel portal will be located. Also, ecology teams are involved in Cilfor at the Eastern end, with surveys and habitat management activities. The vegetation is being cleared and special low fencing installed which helps to safely direct any reptiles within the site. These can then be relocated from the ‘Refugia’ to safe areas outside of the site boundaries. Any nesting birds that are found during the breeding season will have to be carefully monitored, buffer zones will be created around any nest that is active and would be left undisturbed until the birds have fledged, after September. With the suitable overgrowth producing branches and stems that will be saved from being put through the chipping machine, another use has been found. It involves building ‘Hibernaculas’ with the materials which will be situated around the adjoining properties to give small wildlife and insects, homes.
Since the works on this project are intended to last for up to seven years, its only right that the current inhabitants of the open access pasture and grazing land, be rehomed safely and comfortably.
This VIP project started its progression in late 2014 with the identification of its landscape and visual impact significance. Between Winter 2014 and Autumn 2015, National Grid Electricity Transmission’s independent landscape consultants performed technical considerations and analysed the input from local stakeholders in Gwynedd and the National Park. All of this groundwork enabled the Stakeholder Advisory Group to place this section of the Overhead Line on the priority list with three others to be taken forward to the next stage, in September 2015.
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