CAMBRIDGE NEWS (UK) 06 December 10 Toad tunnels to be dug underneath guided buswayNew tunnels will be dug underneath the guided busway in a mercy mission for toads.
The concrete track was branded a “corridor of death” because scores of the amphibians were suffering a lingering death trapped between beams – or were getting squashed by bus test runs.
The stretch between Cambridge and Histon cut across a toad migration route which had not been picked up by surveys before construction started.
Nature lovers launched patrols in a bid to rescue the animals, as the News reported.
Bosses behind the controversial scheme have now confirmed they will remove infill from underneath the track, allowing toads to pass safely below.
Bob Menzies, Cambridgeshire County Council’s head of busway delivery, said the tunnels will be located roughly every 50m over a 600m stretch.
He said: “Forty tunnels are already in place to help animals such as toads cross the track, but as soon as this problem was identified staff visited the site regularly to help move toads across the track.
“Additional tunnels will be installed in this area once the route has been handed over to the council and the work will be done at the same time as the cycleway is surfaced.”
William Searle, from Madingley Toad Rescue, said the only other option would have been to construct a new lake.
He said: “This will certainly help because at the moment the busway is a completely impenetrable barrier which not only stops the toads migrating, it also traps them and they die.”
When the problem was discovered, Louise Watson, of Mill Road, Cambridge, launched a one-woman campaign to save the toads, branding the situation an “absolute disgrace”.
On one day she found 81 dead toads and 16 live ones, many of which were pregnant females.
The council says ecological surveys had not picked up on the toad issue because they focused on endangered species – and the amphibians are not endangered.
The work cannot be carried out until the route is handed over to the authority, and this is not expected to happen until January or February.
Toad tunnels to be dug underneath guided busway