Environment

There are thousands of fixed monitors in place around CRL construction sites to measure air and water quality, noise, vibration, ground settlement and groundwater levels in real time 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The monitoring network is complemented with targeted site or activity-based inspections that occur daily, weekly and monthly. If the project exceeds limits, changes to practices and procedures are made as quickly as practicable.

CRL Ltd and its construction partners work to comply with more than 500 separate conditions relating to eight designations and numerous resource consents from Auckland Council. It must also comply with archaeological authorities obtained from Heritage New Zealand.

These conditions provide the parameters and limits of effects that CRL construction and operation can have on the project's surrounding environment and communities.

Management plans continue to govern the actions the project takes to meet requirements and achieve environmental compliance. As the project progresses the environmental team is becoming more adept at implementation of these measures, learning from their experience working on a project of such scale.

Management plans provide detail on the practices and procedures to be followed and provide a comprehensive framework to manage adverse effects on the environment including:

• Noise and vibration

• Traffic access and parking

• Social impacts and business disruption

• Discharges to air, land and water.

Noise and vibration

Link Alliance’s Noise and Vibration Management Plan provides detail on the noise and vibration monitoring and management practices and procedures to be followed. This is a working plan that is revised each year to ensure our project activities continue to meet requirements and achieve environmental compliance.

The project monitors noise and vibration in real time 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are 25 noise monitors and vibration monitors across the project. Project works have the potential to exceed construction noise and vibration limits at the closest monitors. Appropriate mitigation methods and measures are utilised to avoid or minimise exceedances. Methods to achieve best practicable options for mitigating adverse effects during the construction work include:

• Staff training

• Selecting plant and equipment with low noise and vibration emission levels

• Turning off plant and equipment or throttling them down to a minimum when not in use

• Selecting appropriately sized equipment for the task

• Using noise barriers or enclosures in areas where the noise limits are predicted to be exceeded, and where they provide effective mitigation.

Scheduling of construction activities is a key tool for managing construction noise and vibration effects. The time of day and the duration of the construction activities can be adjusted after consultation, where possible, to avoid particularly sensitive times for people impacted. Good stakeholder communication practices are a key component for the management of noise disruption from construction activities. If there are noise or vibration exceedances, changes to practices and procedures are made to maintain compliance.