Northern Line Extension 3 years on

Enabling regeneration
London is a vibrant and expending city and as such has ever increasing demands on it’s transportation infrastructure. The Northern Line Extension is a vital part in the regeneration of key development areas such as Vauxhall, Battersea and Nine Elms.

The NLE consists of two new 3km running tunnels for the Northern Line of the London Underground from Kennington to Battersea, with two new stations (one at Nine Elms and one at Battersea) and two ventilation shafts in Kennington. The construction works began in 2014 across five main works sites. Sigicom have been working with FLo (Ferrovial Laing O’Rourke) and the Temple Group for the last three years providing an integrated environmental monitoring system.

Throughout the construction phase it has been necessary for the project team to effectively control and monitor a range of environmental parameters including noise, vibration and dust. Sigicom were bought in at the beginning of the project by FLo’s appointed consultants Temple group to provide an integrated, web based monitoring solution. Currently the project is monitoring 10 noise, 7 dust, 5 vibration and 4 wind/weather loggers across the five sites.

Through the use of INFRA Net (software) they have been able to simply monitor these parameters and the site team have been able to generate and manage the environmental data on a daily basis. Using our trigger system they have been able to identify and respond to environmental issues swiftly ensuring that corrective action is taken where required.

Cost effective and simple
The intention from the beginning of this project was to provide a web based system which enabled quick and simple reporting of the environmental monitoring data, this helped reduce cost and free up consultant time. With the system installed Temple have been able to hand over the routine data management and reporting tasks to the FLo team allowing them to focus on the technical areas of consultancy. The Environmental Manager for the project is Rob McCarthy from FLo:

The Sigicom System proved invaluable with its audio playback function and single point of access to all our monitoring data in enabling us to readily identify the source of noise, vibration and air quality triggers. In conjunction with the ability to download data for routine reporting it provided a cost-effective solution.

The integrated web based monitoring has provided the project with proportionate data when they need it in an accessible format. The system contributed towards the NLE project being awarded a Green Apple Gold award for the implementation of environmental monitoring and control.