Borehole drilling in Bedford borough paused until March 2025 

To help us develop the designs for the new railway between Bedford and Cambridge, we need to undertake ground investigations to understand the properties of the soil and rock and the nature of the groundwater in the area around the proposed railway. This will help us deliver East West Rail in a responsible and environmentally sustainable way and avoid and mitigate any potential negative effects.

A number of methods are used in ground investigation surveys to obtain samples and to monitor and test them, including drilled boreholes that take soil samples at various depths. We will begin this phase of our ground investigation work early in 2025 and are working closely with landowners to reach agreements so that we can access their land to carry out this work.

Ground investigation boreholes in Bedford borough will start from March 2025

Whilst this work between Bedford and Cambridge will start in January, we are working with Bedford Borough Council and other stakeholders about the sensitivities of drilling boreholes in some areas of Bedfordshire following the recent tragic incident at Cleat Hill. We are confident that the ground investigation works represent a very low risk, but we recognise that residents in north Bedford may be concerned by drilling in the area so soon after the incident.

For these reasons, we have taken the decision to revise our programme so that we avoid drilling ground investigation boreholes within Bedford borough until March, instead of starting in January as originally planned. We will use this three month period to engage with geotechnical experts, the Council and other local stakeholders to demonstrate that we have implemented robust and safe methods of operation, so that these ground investigations can commence without concern. We will also use this three month period to finalise the land access arrangements necessary to commence the ground investigations.

We would like to assure local residents that the boreholes we need to drill as part of our first phase of ground investigation works will be much shallower than the 100m deep borehole at Cleat Hill. The majority of the boreholes for East West Rail between Bedford and Tempsford will be just 10m or 20m deep and our current plans for the smaller number of deeper boreholes do not exceed depths of 40m. We will not carry out any drilling anywhere along the route were it to be unsafe to do so.

Working with landowners

When liaising with landowners, we will discuss how will we be managing any risks associated with this work. Our specialist survey management team will answer any questions landowners have to make sure they have all the information they need before entering into an access agreement with us. We would encourage any landowners with questions about the ground investigations planned on their land to contact our team on [email protected] or by calling 0330 838 7583.