Financial Times

ITI sets up on-site office to assist in road construction
The Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) has set up its first on-site office in Sri Lanka – a unit to check noise and vibrations levels during construction of the Southern Expressway.

Construction has already begun in the third segment of the Southern Expressway project with work being carried out in different places of the road trace. It follows a strict work schedule to ensure the timely completion of the task, and for cost effectiveness.

“To carry out the work according to the schedule, ‘on-the-spot’ advice and recommendations on environment-related problems should be provided at the site. And thus the Electro Technology Centre (ETC) of ITI as the technical consultative institution on the environmental effects of noise and vibration, took a step forward and put up its site office in Baddegama, with two mining engineers and other experts in related fields, to ensure effective monitoring,” an ITI statement said.

It said ITI has been involved in the pre-identification and monitoring of hazards due to noise and vibration during the last year, and both the ITI and the project staff felt that an on-site office would provide for much greater efficiency. This is the first time in Sri Lanka that environmental factors in a road construction project are being monitored.

The Southern Expressway is the second major construction project started by the Sri Lanka government after the accelerated Mahaweli project. This expressway runs from Kottawa to Matara. Construction began in 2003. Construction on the 232km-long expressway has been broken into three phases – Kottawa to Dodangoda, Dodangoda to Kurudugahahathamme and Kurudugahahathamme to Matara. The last phase, which is the longest (60 km), is now in progress.

Usually, such large-scale construction projects are delayed, or even stalled, due to various environmental-related problems. The government consequently runs into huge financial difficulties by having to pay compensation to the contractor for such delays, thereby incurring expenses over the estimated value of the project.

“In order to minimise the delays and obstacles due to environment-related issues, representatives from the Central Environmental Authority, safety and environmental groups of the construction companies, and a technical consultative institution on environment-related activities are now working as groups. This is a welcome move,” the statement said.

Noise and vibration in road construction projects could occur due to several activities: rock excavation or mining, road compacting using vibrators and piling operations result in unbearable and unsafe levels of noise and vibrations causing a severe disturbance to those living in surrounding areas, and also damages to property.

At the preliminary stage of the road construction projects, while the road trace is being identified, the properties that come under the project site are identified and acquired by the government. While the actual construction work is going on, the resultant effects have to be pre-identified to minimise potential problems. The pre-identification has to be done on a scientific basis in order to minimise the adverse effect and also to be cost effective.

In the Southern Expressway project there are five main groups working together on environmental impact studies. ITI and GSMB Technical Services as the technical institutions, CEA as the legal and implementing body, and the environmental and safety team in the Kumagai Gumi construction company and supervision consultants.

Before any rock mining activity commences, ITI together with CEA has to decide on the norms for the activity and identify the possible parties that could be affected due to the activity. For the affected parties there are three types of remedial actions that could be taken depending on the degree of effect, i.e. evacuation, temporary evacuation and inconvenience payments, followed by damage repairs if necessary.

Based on the remedial action recommended by ITI, the CEA gives approval for its implementation, with the concurrent agreement of the affected parties. During this period, with remedial action being taken and construction and mining activities still continuing, the ETC team at the site office collects necessary data, analyzes them and keeps on refining the norms further while monitoring the implementation of the norms continuously. Hence, the Southern Expressway project proceeds with the lowest interruptions and minimal disturbances to the people who live around the project area.

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