Rail earth to form nature reserve

The RSPB hopes spoonbills will be attracted to Wallasea Island

Earth removed during the building of the £16bn Crossrail project will be used to create a nature reserve on the coast of Essex, the RSPB has said.

The clay, chalk, gravel and sand will transform 2.5 sq miles (6.5 sq km) of farmland into a tidal wildlife habitat.

The earth will reshape the landscape of Wallasea Island, near Southend-on-Sea.

The work on Crossrail, which will connect Maidenhead in Berkshire to Shenfield in Essex via Heathrow and central London, will begin from 2010.

'Innovative solution'

Saltmarsh, mudflats and other coastal habitats will be built on Wallasea Island to replace the land lost due to rising sea levels. Plans for the site were revealed last year.

The RSPB hopes that when completed the island will attract rare or vanished species such as spoonbills and Kentish plovers.

The boring of tunnels for the rail project will begin in 2011 and the work on the island habitat is expected to take up to 10 years.

See details of Crossrail route through central London Enlarge Map

Dr Andre Farrar, the RSPB's protected areas manager, said: "From the outset we recognised that working on Wallasea Island would be technically challenging and would need innovative solutions.

"With most of the land well below high tide level, just letting the sea in would have brought in too much sea water causing problems with navigation and erosion elsewhere in the Crouch and Roach estuaries.

"The use of high quality material is the best way of achieving habitat restoration on these low-lying coasts."

Simon Phillips, Crossrail construction liaison manager said: "We have been looking for a good way to reuse the excavated material from Crossrail for some time and we believe that we could not have found a better home for it than the RSPB scheme at Wallasea Island."

The charity will submit its planning application to Essex County Council next week. The decision on the project is expected to come through by spring next year.