Wareham Solar Farm

Site Difficulty

When planning the project, the point of connection was approx. 8km from the site. The cable route required passing through a SSSI and adjacent to another SSSI limiting access and use of heavy machinery to install the route. The main highways section also included disruption to local businesses including a waste management organisation and two holiday parks.

Contrary to the information provided by the Local Authority, the local businesses had not been informed of the works in advance of the scheduled dates and were only made aware when the project team began courtesy meetings to coordinate the works. Subsequently, the works were delayed during the school holidays, potentially adding significant delay to energisation of the project.
 

Solutions

Works were coordinated so that both disruption to both the trading activities of local businesses and delay to the project was mitigated. Works were completed in areas with minimal public traffic first, then when works on the highway were being undertaken, these were coordinated in times when the holiday parks had less arrivals and departures (Tuesday to Thursday) and multiple workfronts were opened to ensure the works were completed in a
shorter duration. Local businesses were invited to site and to meetings regularly to build an understanding of both their own pressures and concerns and wider issues with local residents so that all concerns could be taken into consideration.