6.                  ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING & AUDIT

 

6.1       Construction Phase

 

6.1.1    Air

 

The construction work will inevitably lead to dust emissions, mainly from truck haulage and material handling.  It is predicted that the dust generated will exceed the hourly and daily criteria of 500 mgm³ and 260mgm³ respectively at the some ASRs.

 

Mitigation Measures

 

Mitigation measures are presented in Section 3.5.4 along with recommendations to limit the dust emissions.  With proper dust control measures, in accordance with Air Pollution Control (Construction Dust) Regulations, the TSP levels at the affected air sensitive receivers will comply with the dust criteria.

 

Monitoring Locations

 

Dust monitoring requirements have been recommended in the EM&A Manual to ensure the efficacy of the control measures.  Monitoring station should be set up at one location at Mei Foo Sun Chuen (ASR9) as listed in Table 6.1 below and shown in Figure 3.1.

 

Table 6.1         Air Monitoring Locations

 

Location	Monitoring Station
Mei Foo Sun Chuen Phase 8 (Block 112)	ASR 10
Mei Foo Sun Chuen Phase 8 (Block 128)	ASR 12

 

Baseline Monitoring

 

Baseline monitoring should be carried out at the designated monitoring location for at least 14 consecutive days prior to the commissioning of the construction works to obtain daily 24 hour TSP samples.  1-hour sampling shall also be done at least 3 times per day while the highest dust impact is expected.

 

Impact Monitoring

 

Impact monitoring should be carried out during the course of the Works.  For regular impact monitoring, the sampling frequency of at least once in every six-days, shall be strictly observed at all the monitoring stations for 24-hr TSP monitoring.  For 1-hr TSP monitoring, the sampling frequency of at least three times in every six-days should be undertaken when the highest dust impact occurs.

 

The monitoring is required to ensure compliance with the EIAO in providing feedback to the Contractors for the management of their operations.  The EM&A programme will be presented separately in the EM&A Manual.

 

6.1.2    Noise

 

Noise produced during the construction phase will impact upon nearby noise sensitive receivers (NSRs) as assessed in Section 4.  The construction noise criteria of 75 dB(A) will be exceeded at some of the representative NSRs if construction noise is unmitigated.

 

            Mitigation Measures

 

Noise mitigation measures have been recommended in the EIA report to reduce the noise impact to within the noise criteria and are presented in Section 4.3.  It is anticipated that if the mitigation measures described in Section 4.3 can be successfully applied, the noise levels experienced by the affected receivers will be reduced to within the noise criteria.

 

            Monitoring Locations

 

Noise monitoring requirements have been recommended in the EM&A Manual in order to ensure compliance with the criteria.  Noise monitoring should be carried out at one monitoring location MF3, listed in Table 6.2 and additional locations considered necessary, in agreement with the Environmental Protection Department (EPD).  The location of the monitoring station is shown on Figure 4.1.

 

Table 6.2         Noise Monitoring Station

 

Location	Monitoring Station
Mei Foo Sun Chuen Phase 8 (Block 112)	MF3
Mei Foo Sun Chuen Phase 8 (Block 128)	MF5

 

            Baseline Monitoring

 

Baseline noise monitoring should be carried out prior to the commencement of the construction works.  The baseline monitoring should be carried out daily for a period of at least two weeks.

 

            Impact Monitoring

 

Noise monitoring should be carried out at all the designated monitoring stations.  The monitoring frequency shall depend on the scale of the construction activities.  The following is an initial guide on the regular monitoring frequency for each station on a per week basis when noise generating activities are underway :

 

·         one set of measurements between 07.00 – 19.00 hours on normal weekdays;

·         one set of measurements between 19.00 – 23.00 hours;

·         one set of measurement between 23.00 – 07.00 hours of next day; and

·         one set of measurements between 07.00 – 19.00 hours on holidays.

 

General construction work carrying out during restricted hours is controlled by CNP system under the NCO.

 

The monitoring is required to ensure compliance with the EIAO in providing feedback to the Contractors for the management of their operations.  The EM&A programme will be presented separately in the EM&A Manual.

 

6.1.3    Waste Management

 

It has been recommended that auditing of each waste stream should be carried out periodically by the Link Roads G & L contractor to determine if wastes are being managed in accordance with approved procedures and the site waste management plan.  The audits should look at all aspects of waste management including waste generation, storage, recycling, treatment, transport, and disposal.  An appropriate audit programme would be to undertake a first audit at the commencement of the construction works, and then to audit quarterly thereafter.

 

6.2              Operational Noise

 

6.2.1    Noise

 

Noise monitoring during the operational phase of Link Roads G & L shall be carried out at NSRs.  The purpose of this monitoring is to verify the prediction of operation noise levels in the EIA study. The Territory Development Department should be responsible for the operational phase monitoring with a qualified noise monitoring contractor or laboratory employed to carried out the proposed monitoring.

 

6.2.2    Noise Parameters

 

Traffic noise level shall be measured in terms of L₁₀ (1 hour) dB(A) preferably during the rush hours.  Other information such as traffic flow counts, % of heavy vehicles (all vehicles with an unladen weight exceeding 1525 kg) and average speed shall also be obtained during the same measurement period for both far side and near side respectively.

 

6.2.3    Monitoring Equipment

 

Sound level meters in compliance with the International Electrotechnical Commission Publications 651:1979 (Type 1) and 804:1985 (Type 1) specifications shall be used for carrying out the noise monitoring.  Immediately prior to and following each noise measurement, the accuracy of the sound level meter shall be checked using an acoustic calibrator generating a known sound pressure level at a known frequency.  Measurements may be accepted as valid only if the calibration level from before and after the noise measurement agree to within 1.0dB.

 

Noise measurements should not be made in the presence of fog, rain, wind with a steady speed exceeding 5m/s or wind with guts exceeding 10m/s.  The wind speed shall be checked with a portable wind speed meter capable of measuring the wind speed in m/s.

 

The ET is responsible for the provision of the monitoring equipment.  He shall ensure that sufficient noise measuring equipment and associated instrumentation are available for carrying out the monitoring.  All the equipment and associated instrumentation shall be clearly labelled.

 

6.2.4    Monitoring Locations

 

            The noise monitoring locations is recommended to be at NSRs located along Link Roads G & L.  The operational noise monitoring locations are shown in Figure 4.1 and summarised in Table 6.3.  However, the exact locations where the noise monitoring should be conducted and confirmed after the completion in agreement with the EPD.

 

Table 6.3         Operational Noise Monitoring Stations

 

Location	Monitoring Station
Mei Foo Sun Chuen Phase 8, Block 112	MF3 – Top Level
KMB Bus Depot CDA Site, Town 1	KMB1 – Low Level
Site 10, Residential Blocks, Phase 1, Block 3	10S1 – Mid Level

Baseline Monitoring

 

Although there will be no traffic on Link Roads G & L before its official opening, baseline monitoring is necessary to define the background contribution from the major noise sources (viz West Kowloon Expressway, Route 9 and Lam Wai Interchange).

 

Impact Monitoring

 

Traffic noise monitoring shall be carried out at monitoring stations which will be subsequently agreed with EPD prior to Link Roads G & L being fully operational.  It is recommended that three noise measurements for 30 minutes each carried out by the ET at each selected representative noise monitoring station during two traffic peak hours (e.g. 08:00 to 09:30 and 17:30 to 18:00) should be obtained during the first year of the operation of Link Roads G & L (i.e. 2003).  The following is a guide on the traffic noise monitoring for each station when Link Roads G & L is operational.

 

·         one set of measurements at the morning traffic peak hour on normal weekdays (exact timing to be confirmed with Transport Department and agreed with EPD); and

 

·         one set of measurements at the evening traffic peak hour on normal weekdays (exact timing to be confirmed with Transport Department and agreed with EPRD).

 

During the traffic noise monitoring, traffic counts should also be conducted so as to ensure the traffic noise of the peak periods are covered.

 

6.2.5    Comparison of Measured and Modelled Results

 

Measured noise level should be compared with the predicted noise levels using the counted traffic data at the time of measurement.

 

The IC(E) shall comment on the discrepancies, if any, and report to EPD for reference.  There will be no Event and Action Plan applicable to traffic noise monitoring during the operational phase.