Will This Affect Your Project?

With Singapore’s very own, Building and Constructions Authority (B.C.A.) having regulations that not only manages the safety of sites, it is almost certain that noise pollution is already a thing that needs to be handled before receiving complains from construction sites from current dwellers near it.

Back in early 2015, B.C.A released a statement that requires all projects to be surveyed first before commencing on it. This statement covers the work of piling, demolition and others to begin with and noise is an unavoidable subject. This regulation is not something that worsened project processes but it serves as a purpose for companies to be a more responsible one. Inevitably, this would reflect well on its brand image and its contribution to the environment.

Innocent Implications

Though with a lot of planning and research done during the documentation and design stage, there could be some loopholes during this process. Some implications are sometimes more often than others and it might only bring harm than good at the end of the day. Rest assured specialist are involved in the process too but all in all these specialist only handle what they are specialized in. However, it could only be innocent issues that were overlooked. Are you guilty of these implications?

1) Cost – cutting

Most projects if not all do take full effort in cutting cost where needed and these implication could back fire when things are overlooked and assumption made are from previous projects that are of different environment. When budgets are tight, the natural focus of projects would be completion of it. Take for example: SITE A might just be a few meters away from the 150 meter proximity, hence the consideration to have noise barrier is straight away taken out as the requirement is met. However, being away from the proximity does not necessary means noise barrier is NOT needed because when the complains start to come in, project works has to be put on hold just so the installation of barriers can be done to handle the complains.

2) Assumptions

Assumptions can be great only if proper considerations have been taken into place. Not all conditions of the project can be applied to others. Take for example: a project in SITE A that was done could be slightly 150 meter away from the site proximity and that could qualify for the non-usage of noise barrier. This concept however is used in SITE B , however more buildings are available in the area where it is prone to noise reflection and amplification of noise. This resulted in complains brought up to relevant authorities.

3) 1 solution works for all

The last probable one would be assuming a solution from previous projects would work for the rest of the upcoming one. This would always be the case of reusing a used noise barrier to be reinstalled to another site. Though this action is an act of being environmentally friendly, one must also take note if the ALL the barriers are still usable. Due to wear and tear and also damages during projects, some barriers might be damaged hence not usable anymore. The second issue would be the usage of a wrong equipment for the job take for example a site using its previous project Noise Reduction Net to handle noise complain by fixing it near to affecting area. Though this would help a little, one must also take note of how much of a decibel they intend to cut such that the complain would be minimized OR to avoid any probable complains.