arrow_back_ios

Main Menu

See All Acoustic End-of-Line Test Systems See All DAQ and instruments See All Electroacoustics See All Software See All Transducers See All Vibration Testing Equipment See All Academy See All Resource Center See All Applications See All Industries See All Insights See All Services See All Support See All Our Business See All Our History See All Our Sustainability Commitment See All Global Presence
arrow_back_ios

Main Menu

See All Actuators See All Combustion Engines See All Durability See All eDrive See All Production Testing Sensors See All Transmission & Gearboxes See All Turbo Charger See All DAQ Systems See All High Precision and Calibration Systems See All Industrial electronics See All Power Analyser See All S&V Hand-held devices See All S&V Signal conditioner See All Test Solutions See All DAQ Software See All Drivers & API See All nCode - Durability and Fatigue Analysis See All ReliaSoft - Reliability Analysis and Management See All Test Data Management See All Utility See All Vibration Control See All Acoustic See All Current / voltage See All Displacement See All Load Cells See All Pressure See All Strain Gauges See All Torque See All Vibration See All Accessories for Vibration Testing Equipment See All Power Amplifiers See All LDS Shaker Systems See All Vibration Controllers See All Training Courses See All Acoustics See All Asset & Process Monitoring See All Custom Sensors See All Data Acquisition & Analysis See All Durability & Fatigue See All Electric Power Testing See All NVH See All Reliability See All Smart Sensors See All Vibration See All Weighing See All Automotive & Ground Transportation See All Calibration See All Installation, Maintenance & Repair See All Support Brüel & Kjær See All Release Notes See All Compliance See All Our People
arrow_back_ios

Main Menu

See All CANHEAD See All GenHS See All LAN-XI See All MGCplus See All Optical Interrogators See All QuantumX See All SomatXR See All BK Connect / Pulse See All API See All Microphone Sets See All Microphone Cartridges See All Acoustic Calibrators See All Special Microphones See All Microphone Pre-amplifiers See All Sound Sources See All Accessories for acoustic transducers See All Experimental testing See All Transducer Manufacturing (OEM) See All Non-rotating (calibration) See All Rotating See All CCLD (IEPE) accelerometers See All Charge Accelerometers See All Electroacoustics See All Noise Source Identification See All Environmental Noise See All Sound Power and Sound Pressure See All Noise Certification See All Industrial Process Control See All Structural Health Monitoring See All Electrical Devices Testing See All Electrical Systems Testing See All Grid Testing See All High-Voltage Testing See All Vibration Testing with Electrodynamic Shakers See All Structural Dynamics See All Machine Analysis and Diagnostics See All Dynamic Weighing See All Calibration Services for Transducers See All Calibration Services for Handheld Instruments See All Calibration Services for Instruments & DAQ See All On-Site Calibration See All Resources See All Software License Management

Award-winning Construction Noise Management


Cited as Europe’s largest civil engineering project and jointly sponsored by the Department for Transport and Transport for London, Crossrail will provide a new railway linking Heathrow Airport, the West End, the City of London and Canary Wharf.
Image above: Moor House, one of London’s biggest office buildings is adjacent to the construction site. Photo credit P. Thurlow.

Costing £14.8bn, the route will run more than 100 km via 38 stations and include 21 kilometers of new, twin-bore tunnels under central London. Eight custom-made, tunnel-boring, giant machines weighing 1000 tonnes each will work 24 hours a day excavating the ground and building the tunnel walls as they dig. The Crossrail trains will bring an additional 1.5 million people within 45 minutes commuting distance of London’s business district and carry 72,000 passengers per hour in peak times along the central section, which should be completed in 2018 and be fully operational in 2019.


Going underground

A massive construction project such as Crossrail brings with it an abundance of noise and vibration challenges. The C501 Moorgate shaft is a 35 × 35 meter, 55-meter-deep hole excavated right next to the existing Moorgate Station. Reinforced concrete panels sixty meters deep are being installed to form a box below ground, which will house a new ticket hall.

The site is one of the most constrained on the Crossrail scheme and offers little opportunity for multi-tasking; each job has to be done one step at a time. In fact, space is so constricted that the main contractor, BAM Nuttall Kier JV (BNK JV), opted for modular accommodation erected on a steel grid on columns above the access points to the underground. The operating conditions, established with the City of London, are also complex in order to both limit noise impact and provide periods of respite to the different stakeholders day and night. Permitted noise levels vary up to 12 times throughout the day. BNK JV needed to be sure that the priorities and expectations of stakeholders were met while enabling the project team to make progress with construction and fulfill obligations to the local authority and project owners, Crossrail.

In addition, the site is surrounded by buildings – some listed (protected due to their heritage value). Moor House, one of London’s largest office buildings, various hotels, a school and an exclusive apartment building are all close to the construction site and have to be taken into account regarding noise nuisance. In such a built-up area there are also many sources of noise other than the construction at Moorgate – air, road and rail transport create significant noise disturbance as well as other nearby construction sites. This makes it a challenge not just to keep construction noise levels below limits but also, should a breach occur, to determine the cause.

“Brüel & Kjær’s noise sentinel demonstrated the successful creation and implementation of practical solutions to difficult noise problems.” 
Gloria Elliott - Chief Executive Of The Noise Abatement Society

Drilling down into the details of data

In order to deal with these challenges, BNK JV turned to acoustic consultants Anderson Acoustics for a real-time noise-management solution that would fulfill the Crossrail project’s noise pollution restrictions, and prevent operations being delayed. With advice from Anderson Acoustics, BNK JV chose Noise Sentinel, a subscription-based service that combines established monitoring practices with new innovations, such as continuous assessment and easy data sharing with stakeholders, to help industry manage noise impact in the community. Noise Sentinel records the audio when levels are high, allowing users to investigate noise breaches by replaying the noise and thereby determining if it was construction-related, and if so, take action to address it. 

Construction shift teams are equipped with a duty phone that receives warnings or alerts from Noise Sentinel via e-mail and SMS so that they can react quickly to noise events above set limits. Cloud-based computing allows any member of the team to have access to web pages that detail real-time noise levels, historical noise data and alerts.

This robust and effective system is designed to take away the headache of monitoring from the construction team. Noise Sentinel is constantly monitored by Brüel & Kjær and any equipment failure is identified and quickly rectified without the involvement of the project team. So while Brüel & Kjær focuses on its expertise – noise management technology, the contractor team is left to focus on its core business – construction.

The system has continuously monitored noise around the site since November 2011 and has exceeded both the expectations of the City of London and the contractual requirements of Crossrail. The history of noise data from Noise Sentinel is provided to the City on a monthly basis to show the site’s noise performance. Regular meetings with environmental health officers then look at more detailed data. As a result, the construction team is seen to be a ‘good neighbor’, which will work well for future construction bids, and can get more done because they know what their real noise impact is and don’t have to worry about breaching noise regulations.


A winning team

BNK JV been awarded Crossrail’s Green Line Scheme award for the project and Noise Sentinel has not only won the UK Noise Abatement Society’s John Connell Technology Award, sponsored by the Institute of Acoustics, but also been shortlisted for the Environmental Initiative of the year at the 2013 International Tunnelling Awards.


Did you know

Two-thirds of the excavated material will be donated to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) to create a new, 1500 acre reserve at Wallasea Island in Essex.

Two-thirds of the excavated material will be donated to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds)