sydney-city-centre-review-of-environmental-factors

Table 6-15
Recommended safe working distances for vibration intensive plant
Plant Item
Vibratory Roller
Small Hydraulic
Hammer
Rating/Description
< 50 kN
(Typically 1–2 tonnes)
< 50 kN
(Typically 2–4 tonnes)
< 50 kN
(Typically 4–6 tonnes)
300 kg–18 to 34 tonne
excavator
Safe working distance
Cosmetic
damage 1
Jackhammer Hand held 1 metre
(nominal)
Human
response 2
5 metres 15 metres to
20 metres
6 metres 20 metres
12 metres 40 metres
2 metres 7 metres
Avoid contact
with structure
Note 1: Referenced from British Standard BS 7385:2-1993 Evaluation and measurement for
vibration in buildings Part 2
Note 2: Referenced from DEC’s Assessing Vibration: a technical guideline
Operation noise (road traffic) assessment criteria
The RNP states that ‘for existing residences and other sensitive land uses affected
by additional traffic on existing roads generated by land use developments any
increase in the total traffic noise level should be limited to 2 dB above that of the
corresponding ‘no build option’’. This criterion was adopted to assess the predicted
operational noise impacts under the two future scenarios described in Table 6-1.
6.2.3 Existing environment
Ambient noise levels
The proposal is located within a highly urbanised area with a mix of land uses
including residential, commercial, tourism (including accommodation) and road and
public transport infrastructure. Major noise sources within the city centre include
traffic (localised and distant), pedestrians, business operations, building air
conditioning plant and construction sites. Existing noise levels during the day and
night time are high. Many office buildings and residential structures within the city
centre are suitably insulated against noise and occupants are accustomed to varying
background noise levels.
Short-term attended noise measurements
Appendix D provides a full list of the noise monitoring results collected in each
location across the proposal footprint. The monitoring results were captured to
describe the ambient noise conditions at the locations of representative of sensitive
receivers. As discussed above, it is not possible to capture and set NMLs for each
receiver. The data therefore are representative of selected receivers.
The location noise was monitored in the city centre influenced the recorded ambient
noise levels. Table 6-16 shows the ambient noise RBLs (represented at the L90,
which is the average noise level that occurred for 90 per cent of the time) across the
proposal footprint. The RBLs are representative of the location in each work site
Sydney City Centre Capacity Improvement 215
Review of Environmental Factors