In order to facilitate construction management related to the New Railway Network of the Basque Country, the Basque government proposed to draw up Specific Instructions containing landscape and environmental integration criteria to guide consultants working on temporary or definitive construction work for railroad projects. The Guidelines lay down the working method required for the environmental integration throughout all stages of the Project development by means of the following phases: Preliminary Environmental Analysis, Corrective and Compensatory Preventive Measures Proposal and Environmental Monitoring Program Design. In the second phase, landscape and environmental harmonization criteria was defined for the construction projects of the four stretches of high speed railway line hired by the Basque government in Guipúzcoa. From a methodological viewpoint, the study was made in four successive stages, according to the scale at which the layout was approached. Geometric factors were also taken into account. In the first stage, a series of 1:10,000 scale environmental, regional and landscape studies were carried out. The second, more detailed, stage, corresponding to the definition of the occupation of all the elements of the scheme, was carried out at 1:5000 scale. In the third stage a plan of environmental factors was drawn up for each stretch to be studied at 1:2000, represented on an orthophoto with the superimposed topography and high speed line trajectory. Once the problems had been identified, the fourth stage was carried out in detail, using the 1:1000 scale, defining each constructive solution required to avoid or minimize the environmental problems.
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The so-called Basque Y location plan. Photographs of the surveying area. Plan and longitudinal profile of the layout. Plan of environmental determining factors. Sketches showing the General Approach and the new proposed solutions.
ENVIRONMENTAL GUIDELINES FOR THE BASQUE COUNTRY Basque Country, 2003