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Approaching Highways England regarding felling work


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Has anyone much experience of working with Highways England? There is a small, local forestry block of about 250 tonnes with crap access that belongs to Highways England. The trees are at the stage of potentially presenting a risk to a couple of major roads and I was going to propose clearing and replanting with natives. 

 

I have a plan formulating in my head, but hoped some of you guys might have experience with them that you wanted to share? The job can be done without road closures (I think), but I'd feel happiest stripping the outside trees with a MEWP and then winching into the stand. All the trees are pencil straight (nothing hanging out) so would under normal circumstances not require winching, but given the proximity of the roads would require it. Or, strip all to poles, close the road for 5 minutes at a time which several trees were dropped without winching and then let traffic through and repeat. 

 

About 100 trees, of which about 30 are within striking range of the roads. Hybrid poplars, 85-90ft tall, 60cm DBH average.

 

Any advice appreciated, as ever.

Edited by Big J
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9 hours ago, Big J said:

 

 

Any advice appreciated, as ever.

If you get the job Jonathan , have everything written down , including price , terms and conditions , no haggling and don't do anything for nothing ! ?

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1 hour ago, Big J said:

Definitely Highways England, yes. I spoke to the Land Registry to ascertain ownership.

Cool. Good news. I often see the terms mixed up and didn't want you to spend ages chasing the wrong people. Not had that much to do with Highways England, but they will want a lot of work doing regarding traffic management I expect. Be prepared to spend a lot of money on a traffic management company.

 

Depending on the road type and how they are willing to work they might allow you to put traffic lights out switching them to all red while dropping the trees or they may want a proper closure. It's difficult to get the public to wait for a couple of minutes especially on a busy road. Of course if they are happy with winching them inwards then you will have an easier time.

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15 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Seeing as they are  hybrid pop and gun barrel strait ( and if you/someone is going to climb them )  could you not just winch the edgers back in without having to strip them ?

That would be the start point of negotiating the method statement. Just have to see how to balance out risk versus cost. 

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Are you doing it for the timber or going to charge, I would try to find local contact and have a chat first, the paper work will be interesting you will also need a highways card on top of your cscs, cpcs,forestry tickets, chainsaw tickets, site management ticket,first aid ticket . Traffic management ticket, main contractor insurance and card this is before you sub any work out to subbies  with most of the above. Will it be worth the hassle?

the highway card is two days training for EVERYONE who enters the site 

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