Southdowns is pleased to congratulate its former client the High Speed 2 Local Authority Noise Consortium (HS2 LANC) on the receipt of the Local Authority Award at the Noise Abatement Society 2017 John Connell Awards, held on Tuesday 31st October at the House of Commons. Rick Methold from Southdowns was invited to join representatives of this consortium during the receipt of the award from Dr Thérèse Coffey, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defra.
Known as the Noise Oscars in the field of acoustics, the award was made in recognition of the collaborative work of 15 Councils on Phase 1 of the HS2 project between London and the West Midlands. This work involved a detailed specialist review of the project’s published environmental impact assessment and its proposals for mitigation to reduce the adverse noise and vibration impacts associated with the construction and operation of major infrastructure of this kind.
Southdowns Environmental Consultants Ltd was appointed by HS2 LANC to provide the technical officers of the lead councils, the London Borough of Camden and Chiltern District Council, with independent expert advice and strategic guidance on sound, noise and vibration associated with the construction and operation of this high speed railway based on the company’s extensive experience of work on the delivery of major new railway projects in the UK and overseas, including Crossrail 1 and High Speed 1 formerly known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
The results of this LANC collaborative work and the consortium’s engagement with the Promoter of the Proposed Scheme, The Secretary of State for Transport and its technical advisers were several. These included the publication of Information Paper F4 ‘Operational Noise and Vibration Monitoring Framework’ for monitoring noise and vibration from the operation of HS2 and the mitigation performance of the scheme, the first major railway project to adopt and commit to measures of this kind.
Further information on the background to this HS2 LANC work, the 15 Local Councils and the John Connell Local Authority Award sponsored by Rockwool can be found on the Noise Abatement Society web-site.