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

The highest predicted noise impacts would occur in Precinct 2: retail, work site:
R2: Market Street: R4: Clarence Street: and R5: York Street; with commercial
and residential receivers exposed to very high noise levels of up to 91 dB(A)
which could occur either during the day, evening or at night, as no distinction
was made in the modelling concerning the restricted us of certain equipment at
night.
Construction noise (sleep disturbance)
The predictions show exceedances of up to 29 dB above the night-time NMLs and
27 dB above the ICNG sleep disturbance trigger level. These exceedances would be
triggered from the use of specific high noise-generating equipment (ie vibratory roller,
jackhammers, concrete saw, angle grinder, compactor, profiler and road planer).
These night-time noise levels may cause sleep disturbance at residential receivers
throughout most of the work sites, with the exceptions of Park Street: R1 and
Macquarie Street: F1, which have only marginal exceedance of the night-time NMLs
due to the nature of the proposed works.
On excluding this equipment, the noise levels would reduce typically by 10 dB, which
would still lead to potential exceedance of the sleep disturbance trigger level, but
potentially affecting fewer receivers.
Construction vibration
The use of a jackhammer and/or vibratory roller has the potential to result in either
structural (cosmetic) damage and/or amenity (human comfort) impacts during
construction.
Table 6-15 shows that use of a four to six tonne vibratory roller within 12 metres of a
building could cause structural (cosmetic) damage. It also confirms that amenity
(human comfort) impacts could occur for up to 40 metres. In the case of a
jackhammer, impacts would only occur immediately adjacent to the equipment
(ie within one metre).
In the case of the proposed work this would potentially require the use of a vibratory
roller may be used within six to 12 metres of buildings across all work sites with the
exception of Macquarie Street (work sites: F1 and F2). Depending on the size of
the roller, this would be sufficient to cause both structural (cosmetic) damage and
amenity (human comfort) impacts. The potential for structural (cosmetic) damage can
be removed by restricting the size of the vibratory roller to two to four tonnes (refer to
Table 6-15); however limited amenity (human comfort) impacts may still occur across
the proposal footprint, which would be safeguarded against by implementing the
controls listed in Table 6-20.
Noise and vibration operational impacts
Operational (road traffic)
Appendix D contains the traffic and transport data that were used to prepare the
noise and vibration assessment. The assessment considered the predicted traffic
volumes at the affected 17 locations during the day and at night. It presented
predictions for the two scenarios described in Table 6-1:
A do-nothing scenario reporting the change in operational noise due to the
existing noise plus the future development of other committed transport
projects in the city centre excluding the proposal
Sydney City Centre Capacity Improvement 224
Review of Environmental Factors