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The new site off the B3109 Bradford Road will include facilities for the storage and maintenance of underground machinery and the storage of stone blocks, as well as new office and welfare accommodation. The mine access will be on a shallow incline and intercept an existing underground roadway.
A planning application for the £1 million (€1.4 million) development has been submitted to Wiltshire Council and a decision is expected in the summer.
Hanson’s general manager Rod Lafargue said the new entrance would make working processes safer and more efficient and reduce carbon emissions by cutting transport distances.
“The mine covers an area of six hectares and the working face is now around a mile from the existing entrance,” he said.
“The efficiency of the ventilation fans has reduced as the faces have moved further away, while fuel use and associated CO2 emissions have increased. In addition, the steep incline at our existing mine entrance requires stone to be offloaded from underground haulage vehicles and winched to the surface on tracked bogeys. This is time-consuming, inefficient and hazardous.”
The improvement project includes landscaping and fencing, along with comprehensive environmental monitoring to ensure the impact on local residents is minimised.
Limestone blocks extracted from the mine at Hartham Park are transported to specialist masonry works for shaping and cutting, including Hanson’s own facility at Keynsham near Bristol.
Recent refurbishment projects supplied include Juxon House in St Paul’s Church Yard, London; Pembroke College, Oxford, and Fortescue Fields, Norton St Philip, County Somerset.
