Stratford City – Monitoring Deposited Dust and Suspended Particles in Air for a construction site
Stratford City is a 73-hectare development on the site of a former railway goods yard located in the London Borough of Newham. The project required the removal of 60,000 tonnes of soil to make way for 2,800 homes (including the Olympic Athletes Village), a shopping centre complex, associated infrastructure and support services. We provided expert advice and dust monitoring throughout the construction phase.
Key details
Project name
Stratford city monitoring
Location
Stratford, England
Services provided
Air quality
Challenge
Dust emissions from the construction activity had the potential to cause significant nuisance to the surrounding community. Our client was keen to make sure this was monitored and mitigated throughout the project, to both avoid complaints about deposited dust (the larger particles you can see that settle on surfaces) and more importantly potential adverse health effects from PM (the dust too fine to be seen by the naked eye).
Our role was to ensure that impacts on the surrounding air quality were kept to an acceptable minimum, protecting human health and ensuring the project could remain on track.
Solution
Our approach included a dust monitoring scheme to demonstrate that our client was compliant with guideline levels for deposited dust.
We set up an automatic monitor to measure suspended particulate matter downwind of major construction activities continuously in real time, comparing the results with the guideline limits to protect human health. Any elevated levels could then be correlated with the construction activities that were occurring at the time.
We used baseline monitoring to establish existing local dust levels, allowing us to set site-specific action levels to properly consider the local background. We were therefore able to identify which mitigation measures worked best for the site, with monitoring data to prove their effectiveness.
The data enabled our client to develop a detailed understanding of how their activities were impacting on the surrounding environment, allowing them to proactively manage dust-generating activities. This resulted in improved community relationships, as the client had evidence to rebut accusations of nuisance, ill-health or property damage.
Our support enabled Stratford City Development to demonstrate compliance with nuisance and health limits, in turn managing project risks and protecting their hard-earned environmental credentials.