Southdowns was announced as the winner of the Association of Noise Consultants (ANC) award in the Environmental Noise category at a ceremony held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Birmingham on Wednesday evening. The award was for Southdowns work on Crossrail Contract C510 – Liverpool Street and Whitechapel Station Platform Tunnels which started in 2011. As noise and vibration specialists for the contractor Balfour Beatty BeMO Morgan Sindall Vinci Grands Projets (BBMV) JV, Southdowns was required to identify, design and deploy a range of major mitigation measures to control an unprecedented mixture of airborne noise, structure-borne noise and groundborne noise and vibration sources both above and below ground during the tunnel construction. These works had been scheduled to take place continuously on a 24/7 basis for 6 years in very close proximity to sensitive receptors.
In the entry submission Crossrail’s lead noise and vibration specialist acknowledged the significance of the work undertaken by Southdowns:
“Construction noise and vibration was a major issue for Crossrail and Whitechapel represented one of the greatest challenges on the project because of the scale and nature of the works in such close proximity to sensitive receptors, including Swanlea School.
In response to these challenges the Crossrail contractors were asked to set new standards in terms of best practice and innovation. The C510 contract was highly successful in this regard and implemented a number of world class initiatives and management controls. The steps taken to manage construction noise and vibration were instrumental in reducing impacts on local communities and building trusted relationships with key stakeholders. This work provided significant value for other Crossrail sites and for other nationally significant infrastructure schemes. For example, a number of C510’s initiatives are reported and recognised on the Crossrail learning legacy web-site. C510’s contribution to Crossrail’s legacy on construction noise and vibration was significant and is deserving of recognition.”
In introducing Southdowns as the winner, Dan Saunders of the ANC referred to the judges being impressed by the level of mitigation from existing and novel solutions, and the efforts made in the development of empirically based bespoke groundborne noise and vibration prediction methods.
Rick Methold, Southdowns Project Director for the project stated: “This is a tremendous accolade for the hard and tough hours put into this project by the Southdowns team. We had some very challenging moments along the way but we kept focussed, and ultimately ensured that the contractor could complete its 24/7 tunnelling works over the 6 year period. The innovative approach of committing to a dynamic and continuous review of Best Practicable Means and sharing this with the Local Authority helped to build invaluable trust and demonstrate commitment to the protection of nearby residents and other stakeholders. We knew the work we did on this project was special and I’m grateful to the ANC judges for recognising that also.”
BBMV JV’s Environment Manager said: “Congratulations to Rick and all the Southdowns team. You are so deserving of this award. I know first hand how much hard work went into this project. I’m so proud you received this recognition. Well done to you all.“
Further information on Southdowns role on the project can be found here on this website.
The ANC Acoustic Awards 2018 brochure with citations on the shortlisted entries can be found here.