Digital Construction Noise Prediction Tool for Suburban Rail Loop - Initial and Early Works

Challenge

Suburban Rail Loop East, located in Melbourne, Victoria will deliver a 26-kilometer twin tunnel railway, spanning from Cheltenham to Box Hill incorporating the development of six new underground stations.

Laing O’Rourke has been appointed Managing Contractor partner for the initial and early works packages of the project. As part of the project, Laing O’Rourke was challenged with needing to quickly and consistently assess noise impacts from proposed construction activities during the construction planning process, and to evaluate potential impacts against the project’s noise criteria which were established to protect residential amenity, and which stipulate a complex set of multi-faceted noise criteria, unprecedented on major projects in Victoria.

Solution

SLR has worked closely with Laing O’Rourke on the early works package to build a digital, web-based construction noise prediction tool to allow for rapid assessment of construction noise impacts and identification of mitigation measures required to protect residential amenity. The digital web-based solution to allows for highly variable inputs to be assessed against a complex set of criteria. The solution developed allowed for assessment across an area of more than 25 square kilometers of suburban neighborhoods, and to evaluate individual noise impacts at more than 21,000 unique receiver locations.

The solution developed utilised a combination of acoustic modelling, GIS development and digital engineering to establish a centralised and standarised process to accurately and consistently apply the assessment methodology regardless of the variable nature of the construction works.

The application allows authorised users with an internet connection to view the construction area, input construction equipment details and precise working locations, determine noise impacts to nearby sensitive receivers and details the required measures to protect residential amenity. The output of the digital tool produces a report and geo-referenced data which supports the associated documentation for the purposes of works approvals.

Impact

The advice provided by our experts has supported the delivery of this critical project by delivering Laing O’Rourke an automated noise prediction tool to enable the assessment of works and to support approvals. The tool has allowed Laing O’Rourke to manage their own construction noise modelling and assessment in near real time, while ensuring that potential impacts on the community are appropriately managed using an accurate, standard-approved assessment process developed by SLR.

The validity of the tool’s outputs were measured and found to be accurate. This exercise demonstrated that the digital tool developed by SLR was a reliable foundation for the project to managed community engagements and stakeholder consultations planning and implementation.