Northern Line Extension project awarded Green Apple ‘Gold’ for innovative environmental practices

The Ferrovial Agroman Laing O'Rourke joint venture, FLO,  has been recognised with a Green Apple 'Gold' award for innovative environmental practices on its Northern Line extension project. Presented at a ceremony at the House of Commons on Friday 11th November, the award was in recognition of the implementation of a fully integrated environmental monitoring system called Sigicom INFRA. It is the first time in the UK that a major infrastructure scheme uses this system Sigicom INFRA which measures a variety of environmentally sensitive parameters such as vibration, dust and noise in real time and without the need for attended monitoring. Jose Chicharro, Environmental Graduate, who manages the system, was pleased to accept the award on behalf of the NLE along with Rob McCarthy (FLO JV, Environment Manager), Richard Watts (London Underground, Delivery Manager) and Simon Perry (Associate Director, Temple Group). Chicharro said:

"The NLE is a large infrastructure project involving 24hr construction, in a densely populated residential area that has the potential to cause much environmental disturbance. This is the reason why the NLE requires an innovative method of gathering accurate data with regard to noise, vibration and air quality which can both help us to meet ours and our client's (Transport for London) environmental goals by identifying and mitigating any factors that could cause disruption to our local stakeholders as well as helping us to find best practice solutions. With this in mind, we are able to minimise adverse effects from the construction activities. The Green Apple "Gold" award makes all of us very proud to be part of this great team."

The Green Apple 'Gold' award was presented to NLE not only for the innovative system, but also for making the data produced available to the public as an industry first. The NLE's noise monitoring data can be viewed on the Transport for London NLE webpage where the preceding three months' data is available at any time. This gives the local community access to the information to check noise levels for themselves, clearly presented against predetermined levels agreed with the local London Boroughs. It therefore allows the NLE to offer an exceptional level of transparency never before seen on a large UK infrastructure project. The public reports include investigation results and also actions taken by the company as soon as early real-time warnings are received via text message and email. The new system also includes several innovative measurement techniques, such as an audio playback method that has proven itself to be invaluable in identifying the source of peak noise events. Ferrovial Laing O'Rourke JV's implementation of the fully integrated environmental system most certainly has now set a new bar for major infrastructure projects in the UK.