A ROAD near Arborfield has won a biodiversity award for its new bridge, which support animals to travel safely across the borough.
Observer Way, a 2.3km (1.4 miles) bypass which opened last November, includes off-road paths and a bridleway crossing to help wildlife living nearby.
It has won the Innovation category of this year’s Construction Industry Research and Information Association BIG Biodiversity Challenge Awards.
Commisioned by Wokingham Borough Council, the new bridge links two sections of a public right of way to the east of Swallowfield Road.
The bridge features tunnels for animals, wide slopes planted with trees and hedges and a wooden fence to guide bats across until the new planting is fully grown.
Cllr Parry Batth, executive member for environment and leisure, is delighted and proud of this achievement.
“It highlights the council’s long-standing commitment to maintaining a green borough, in which conserving and enhancing biodiversity plays a critical role,” he said.
“I would like to congratulate everyone involved, both within the council and our external partners, for successfully delivering this project while creating a body of research which will inform many more like it in future.”
