Here are some of the more common questions we’re asked about our proposals at Burnham Quarry.
The site was chosen because:
Based on estimated demand Winstone expects the quarry will operate for approximately 60 Years.
The majority of quarrying activities will be undertaken during the hours of 7am to 8pm (Monday to Saturday excluding public holidays) with rehabilitation and site pre-start-up including operational warmup of on-site plant occurring from 6am to 7am on the same days.
On up to 30 days (Monday to Saturday) per annum and 15 Sundays (excluding public holidays) between 5am and 7am, it is proposed to load trucks with aggregate in the stockyard and to despatch that material to concrete batching facilities.
Aggregate produced at Burnham Quarry will be used to build bridges , offices, houses, apartments, tunnels and roads all across Canterbury. In previous years the aggregate produced from Winstone quarries at Yaldhurst and Wheatsheaf has been used extensively in Canterbury projects including:
Winstone considers that recycled aggregates will become increasingly necessary and has committed as a company to recycling and circular economy solutions. That said, the demand for virgin aggregate and the relatively limited supply of material to recycle means that recycled aggregates will only form a small portion of the market for some time.
Quarrying will be undertaken in phases circulating around the Site as shown on the Quarry Staging plan. The removal of overburden will generally only occur during the earthwork season (typically October to April) and will be stored in temporary stockpiles along site boundaries as shown on the Edge Treatment Plan. These temporary stockpiles will be located within the 17.5 metre setback from site boundaries, will be 3 metres in height with a minimum 1:1 batter slope that will be grassed. They will be constructed prior to extraction occurring within 250 metres of the site boundary and extend along the length of the area to be extracted and will remain in place until the area within 250 metres of the boundary has been rehabilitated (except for the final batter).
The final act of rehabilitation will be to regrade the batter slope and use the overburden within the stockpile to cover the final batter with a minimum of 200 millimetres of subsoil and 200 millimetres of topsoil ready for planting. The rehabilitated area will then be returned to appropriate farming use.
Any excess overburden will be stockpiled in windrows along the western boundary of the first extraction area. The internal stockpiles will be used for rehabilitation as extraction moves from the long-term processing and stockpile areas into the general extraction
Land used for quarrying will be progressively rehabilitated back to a standard suitable for a range of agricultural uses.
The LUC classification is used to assess the long-term sustainable capability of the land to support production for cropping, pastoral farming, forestry, and soil/water conservation. The LUC class for the Burnham site is 4.
Winstone’s proposed rehabilitation strategy does not require imported cleanfill, and therefore the ability to import cleanfill is not part of this application.
The proposed quarrying operation will be carefully monitored to ensure groundwater quality is not affected. Winstone is not proposing to import cleanfill meaning the only potential sources of contamination during quarrying are onsite machinery fuels, lubricants and hydraulic fluids. The management of these potential contaminants will be carefully managed in accordance with detailed procedures and a Spill Management Plan. Post-rehabilitation, the agricultural use of the land will also be carefully managed to ensure E-Coli and nitrates entering groundwater do not impact water quality.
Yes – the material being quarried is alluvial gravel, comprised mainly of graywacke rock which contains quartz. Quartz is found in almost all kinds of rock including sands, clays, shale and gravel.
The site at Burnham is large, meaning that the fixed quarrying processing equipment can be located at least 500m from any boundary, and even further from any nearby dwellings. Mobile crushing machines will be located at least 200m from any boundary. Please see more discussion on measures to control dust at in the Environmental Considerations page.
The quarry will not generate more than 250 heavy vehicle movements per day (on any one day) until the intersection of Aylesbury Road and State Highway 1 has been upgraded to a roundabout or equivalent. Please note that 250 movements is equivalent to 125 vehicles visiting, and then leaving the quarry.
After that upgrade has occurred, it is proposed that the quarry may generate a maximum of 750 truck movements per day (i.e. 375 individual trucks). Early morning truck movements between 5am and 7am will be limited to 10 truck movements per hour on up to 30 days (Monday to Saturday) and 15 Sundays per annum (excluding public holidays).
It is unlikely that any trucks will return to the Site during these hours given the distance to markets.
Yes. Winstone recognises however that the SH1/Ayelsbury Road intersection is currently operating at capacity and has proposed that truck movements be limited until such time as the intersection is upgraded.
No – the quarry will only be open the commercial customers.