Noise management during the construction of a light rail scheme through Dublin city centre

Luas Cross City is the next stage of Dublin's integrated light rail network. The 5.6km long scheme extends the Luas Green Line through Dublin city centre before servicing a number of residential areas in the suburbs of north Dublin. Planning permission for the scheme was granted in August 2012. Construction works commenced in June 2013 and were completed in December 2017 with the commencement of operations. Ensuring compliance with the construction noise limiting conditions was always likely to prove challenging given the urban and suburban nature of the scheme and the close proximity to thousands of noise sensitive receptors. Innovative and effective noise management measures were implemented during both the planning and construction project phases to ensure a consistent and responsible approach was adopted by the Railway Procurement Agency (now Transport Infrastructure Ireland). This paper describes (i) the collaborative approach adopted with the local authority to manage noise emissions during the construction period (ii) the significant remote real time monitoring and attended noise monitoring regimes implemented to demonstrate compliance in a transparent manner and (iii) approaches adopted to engage with local communities and other sensitive receptors during the works including the deployment of community liaison officers throughout the city and implementation of 'quiet times'.