DYNAMIC DUNESCAPES Braunton Burrows Notches Winter 2023

Tender description

THE AIM OF THE DYNAMIC DUNESCAPES AT BRAUNTON BURROWS: To restore a more open and dynamic nature to the UK's coastal sand dunes, securing both their distinctive landscape and characteristic animals and plants, for the benefit of people and communities into the long term. PROJECT OBJECTIVE 1: To rejuvenate mobile dunes within three carefully selected areas of Braunton Burrows, through a process of 'terraforming', creating deep 'notches' particularly within the foredunes (combined with foredune de-vegetation) to encourage the natural processes of long-term dune mobility. THIS CONTRACT On the foredunes as well as on an inland slack, both on the south-west of the site, significant volumes of sand will be moved to create 'notches' with the express purpose of increasing the flow of wind and sand from the beach into the dune system and creating intense local wind turbulence leading to larger sand blowouts similar to that associated with the currently active Flagpole Dune. This Contract involves forming up to 6 notches in the foredune and 3 notches in the dune hill of Doughnut Slack. TIMING: Works to be completed by March 1st 2023 Specified Works 1) The creation of up to 6 notches (A, B, C, D, E & G below) and associated depositional sand lobes is proposed in the frontal dune area adjacent to Doughnut Slack and Pebble Slack in the southwest part of the dune system. The total sand excavation volume required to create the frontal dune notches is approximately 18,000 m3, with excavation affecting an area of approximately 9000m2. The locations for these are shown on Maps 2-5. 2) The creation of three smaller notches (X,Y & Z below) on the first inland dune at the 'rear' of Doughnut Slack, created in line with the coastal notches of the foredune. Total sand excavation volume required here is approximately 5,600m3, with excavation affecting an area of approximately 1600m2. The locations for these are shown on Maps 2 & 6. A similar area would be immediately affected by placement of the excavated sand. Approximate area totals affected by both excavation and disposal of sand in and adjacent to the notches is provided in Table 1 below. 3)Further localised excavation of up to 10 small hummocks of sand across the intervening, generally flat plain, typically excavating between 1 and 2 metres of sand covering an area of up to 0.5 acre. The location of these are shown on Maps 3 & 4. 4)Flail up to 8 hectares of scrub between the notches location and the front of the scraped slacks - Doughnut, Old Met and Pebble. 5)Pull up and remove from Braunton Burrows up to 350 meters of existing fencing to allow for the sand from the notches to migrate inland HOW TO APPLY If you have a track record of delivering the type of work outlined in the Specification and are interested in bidding for this Contract then please download the attached information and follow the instructions.