Crossrail Bond St: Contract 412

Bond Street Station is one of the most sensitive sites on the entire Crossrail route in terms of noise and vibration. The Western Ticket Hall is surrounded by residents and a number of sensitive commercial properties, including an antique emporium housing valuable objects that are susceptible to vibration. In contrast, the Eastern Ticket Hall is based in a predominantly commercial area. Despite these significant challenges, CSJV C412 were one of the first contractors to be awarded a ‘world class’ score in noise and vibration performance.

A detailed suite of objective performance measures were defined in order to measure contractor’s performance in construction noise management, covering factors considered critical to success. These measures formed part of Crossrail’s Performance Assurance tool (PAF) which sought to minimise impacts on people. This is quite different from controlling or minimising noise levels. Community response to noise is strongly influenced by people’s attitudes towards the noise creator. In the context of construction noise people are more likely to tolerate the noise if they consider that the noise is necessary and that all reasonable steps are being taken to control and minimise noise impacts (ref BS5228).

The PAF places as much, if not more, emphasis on community engagement and communication as it does on the physical aspects of controlling and minimising noise emission from the works.
The judges scored this highly in terms of complexity and managing the project. The application of established best practice to the control and mitigation of noise was critical in this sensitive location and the performance measures could be a real step forward in this field of work.