Our team visited Wollert Secondary College, which opened this year, to educate the 52 year-7 foundation students about our sustainability goals on the Epping Road Upgrade, and how we’re protecting the environment during construction.

We’re committed to minimising impacts on the environment, which is why we have a range of safeguards and initiatives in place, including the use of new sustainable materials with lower embodied carbon and using more recycled materials.

As with all major road projects, we sensitively balance our impact on the environment with the need to improve road safety and journey reliability. This includes identifying sensitive and protected flora and fauna and developing measures to reduce potential impacts on those species.

One way we’re doing this is to build and install 10 bee hotels in the Wollert Secondary College school garden, with help from the students. We used soil recycled from the excavation works on the east side of Epping Road, and donated flower beds, plants, citrus trees and garden tools to the school on the day.

Bee hotels are a great tool to teach students about the diversity of nature, wildflowers, and crop pollination. The students will learn firsthand about pollination and the vital role of bees in maintaining our food supply and contributing to biodiversity and other ecosystem services.

These small structures are designed to attract native solitary bees and provide long-term accommodation where they can nest, rest and breed. This is just one way in which the Epping Road Upgrade is creating positive and long last lasting benefits – beyond the improvement of local road infrastructure – and contributing to building better communities.

Video

Watch our team and students from Wollert Secondary College build and install 10 bee hotels in the school garden.

Build your own bee hotel

Building a bee hotel is a great way to attract native solitary bees and provide them with long-term accommodation where they can nest, rest and breed. You can build your own by following the instructions in our Guide to building a bee hotel.