Sound Of Barra Integrated Transport Project
Eriskay - Environment
Introduction
Objectives
Quarry Restoration
Haul Road
Road "Greening"
Cutting "Greening"
Wildflowers
Otters
The environmental renewal programme around the Eriskay causeway is showing dramatic results as the reconstituted landscape starts to blend in with its surroundings. The picture on the right shows the Glendale haul road junction as it is today.
While a flashback to July 2000 below shows it hard at work as a major traffic junction and core access point for the constuction sites.
Even before the main construction work on the Causeway and the Ferry Terminal at Ceann a Gharaidh was completed in mid-2001, work had begun to make sure the new structures blended into the natural environment.
It was planned from the outset to make the areas of land used solely during the excavation and quarrying phase dissolve back into their original site as quickly as possible.
At the start of the project major commitments were being made to preserving the ecology of the area during and after the work on the Causeway. These included:
- The top layer of peat cleared off the land sites to be stored carefully in order to preserve the natural seedbank
- A three-spanned bridge section in the causeway to allow the passage of whales, doplphins and other sea creatures
- Otters to be provided with four culverts almost a metre across to pass from one side of the causeway to the other
- The Ludag quarry site to be restored to match surrounding landforms and vegetation
By June and July 2001, work was underway to make sure that the quarry slopes looked more natural and that the roadways to the quarry and from the Glendale road to the causeway vanished under their original peat.
Work had already been done in the backdrop to the Ferry Terminal to make sure that the quarry back wall looked like a natural cliff. In the cutting where the road enters Eriskay the slope of the cutting was deliberately broken up to look like a natural rocky slope while the road down to Ceann a Gharaidh was made single track with gentle curves to minimise its impact on the landscape.
Quarry Restoration 1
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Quarry Restoration 2
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Quarry Restoration 3
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Quarry Restoration 4
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Quarry Restoration 5
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Now you see it, now you don't - the haul road in full scale action near Ludag on July 20, 2000 and back under peat and ready to return to grazing land on July 11 2001.
Curves of the road to Ceann a Gharaidh
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Greening of the Haul Road
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View down to Ceann a Gharaidh
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Cutting 1
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Cutting 2
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Cutting 3
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Eriskay youngsters join with CnES landscape architect Robert Stubbington to plant wildplant seeds to regenerate the area around the Ceann a Gharaidh ferry terminal. This is part of the full-scale environmental regeneration project which has already restored much of the Eriskay Causeway site to a natural appearance.
Picture courtesy of Am Paipear.
An otter specialist was called in at the start of the project to monitor a potential otter resting place. If the otters had continued to use this, they would have had to cross the new access road. The original one has now been filled in under Scottish Executive licence and a new one built on the seaward side of the road.