Laura McNeill
Laura is an experienced acoustic consultant with over 15 years of expertise in New Zealand and the UK.
Laura specialises in comprehensive acoustic impact assessments for major transportation projects, including airports, railways, and roads.
Laura has delivered noise assessments for some of New Zealand’s largest airports, contributed to major roading projects and has recently worked on Britain’s longest railway, High Speed Two (HS2), assessing noise impacts from operation of the railway. Her work included quantifying noise and health effects for HS2 through preparation of the Environmental Statement (ES).
Passionate about the health implications of noise, Laura participated in a research study on community response to noise at Christchurch Airport and has contributed to industry knowledge on noise-health relationships.
She has held influential roles in UK working groups, including:
Chair, RSSB Noise Working Group – Leading a unified approach to noise and vibration across the rail industry, influencing policy, legislation, and standards.
Member, Noise Network Plus Health and Wellbeing Group – Driving research capability to address systemic challenges in reducing noise and health impacts on people.
Laura enjoys tackling large-scale projects and employs a diverse range of tools to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges involved. Proficient in GIS software, she has contributed to the development of maps and GIS models to enhance data visualization and analysis of noise impacts.
Expertise
Aviation
Environmental Noise
Transport
Qualifications & Memberships
Bachelor of Science (Hons), University of Auckland
Member of the Acoustical Society of New Zealand (MASNZ)
Member of the Resource Management Law Association (RMLA)
Publications
Development of a methodology for testing the insertion loss of a barrier next to a high-speed train (2025) IOA Conference
Noise and community complaint - is there a correlation? (2019) Transport Acoustic Forum
Assessing the noise effects from Auckland Airports proposed second runway (2018) NZ ESRI User Conference
Selected Projects
