HS2 has revealed ambitious air quality plans, including ‘designing out’ emissions, introducing renewable energy on construction sites and zero-pollution machinery
On Clean Air Day 2020 (8 October), HS2 has listed ten ways it is raising the bar on air quality during construction and operation.
Once built, HS2 will facilitate the shift from road and air to rail, improving the quality of the air people breathe and supporting the transition to a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.
The high-speed railway will be powered by electricity from the national grid.
In order to reduce its carbon footprint, HS2 is also introducing innovations to lower emissions through designing and building the railway.
Numerous initiatives have been developed with partners and academics, with more in the pipeline in a bid to create greener construction sites.
These include new plant emissions reduction strategies that will not only cut pollution, but bring time and cost savings, better reliability, and give assurance to local authorities and the public that the strict emission requirements are being met, to ensure air quality is safe for both the public and workers.
In addition, British-made products such as solar-powered cabins are being rolled out across sites to dramatically reduce the project’s emissions, bringing environmental benefits to local communities along the route.
‘Supporting the UK’s green economic recovery’
HS2’s air quality manager Neil Wait, said: “HS2 is supporting the UK’s green economic recovery and ensuring the UK is on track to achieve its commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“As the country’s largest infrastructure project, we’re pleased to be supporting Clean Air Day – the UK’s largest air pollution campaign, and are working with our partners and supply chain to improve the quality of air for everyone as we build HS2.
“We aim to dramatically cut emissions and carbon on our construction sites, and constantly challenge our supply chain to introduce innovations by using the latest green technology, and to create a greener way of designing and building the new railway.
“Environmental innovations are at the heart of everything we do – from using renewable energy on sites and reducing emissions and carbon, to including eco-friendly features in our designs, and creating hundreds of new wildlife habitats along the route.”
Ten ways HS2 is raising the bar on air quality standards
- ‘Designing out’ emissions – Emissions are being ‘designed out’ of HS2 buildings, with stations and depots using green technologies to cut carbon.
- Transporting materials by freight trains – HS2 is cutting emissions by transporting materials by freight train, with 15,000 freight trains set to move 10 million tonnes of aggregate for HS2 over next ten years.
- Introducing renewable energy on construction sites – In a major step towards greener construction sites, HS2 has trialled the world’s first solar and hydrogen-powered welfare cabins across construction sites, already cutting over 100 tonnes of carbon.
- Pioneering electric, zero-pollution machinery – HS2 is pioneering the UK’s first electric telehandler on one of its major construction sites in London.
- Setting standards for the lowest vehicle emissions levels – HS2 has set standards for the lowest emission levels available for all contractors’ vehicle engines, as well as set targets for contractors to go beyond this as technology improves.
- Strict dust control – HS2 has set strict requirements for all contractors to control and limit their dust, air pollution, odour and exhaust emissions during works.
- Adopting a new plant emissions scheme – HS2 is encouraging the supply chain to adopt a new plant emissions scheme, developed in conjunction with the Construction Equipment Association (CEA).
- Rigorous monitoring of air quality – HS2’s air quality monitoring surveys add to existing national and local ones by Defra, local authorities, communities and academic institutions.
- Plans to change industry best practice – HS2 has set ambitious targets for the supply chain to minimise emissions, and to develop best practise solutions to drive down emissions across the whole construction industry.
- New Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) low emission technology – A project is underway with academic partners to develop an innovative NRMM retrofit which will add technology to existing exhaust and engine systems and recertify them as a newer engine class.
