Construction noise monitoring data for Queensferry crossing: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02470
Date received: 21 October 2017
Date responded: 9 November 2017

Information requested

You asked for information regarding the following:

Noise monitoring equipment at Dundas Home Farm, near the southern access roads to the Queensferry crossing.

I would like to see the records that Transport Scotland has collected from the noise monitors near my property from the period before construction work started and the period after the opening of the road.

Response

As the information you have requested is Environmental Information for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. As the exemption is conditional we have applied the 'public interest test'. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing the information under FOISA outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, your request for this information is refused under Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) Section 25 (1) – that the information is otherwise accessible and can be reasonably obtained without the requirement of a FOISA request.

By way of explanation, all construction noise monitoring data has been published and is on the Transport Scotland Website at: Noise and Vibration

The noise assessment carried out as part of the scheme prior to the Forth Replacement Crossing Project authorisation was published as part of the Environmental Statement at: Forth Replacement Crossing: Environmental Statement

The Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC) construction monitoring reports present data in terms of LAeq and LAmaxF, which is appropriate for construction noise, and this is what the meter was configured to record.

The assessment and measurement of Operational Noise will be undertaken before the first anniversary of the Queensferry Crossing fully opening to traffic, ie before 30 August 2018. This allows the operation of the scheme to bed in and become 'normalised'. This report will be published.

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