We were involved throughout the project from the initial design, through consent hearings, construction and the commissioning stage. Our role included assessing existing noise emissions prior to upgrade, building a detailed noise model of the site, and providing noise control advice for both existing and new noise sources. Critically, as the existing site was using 100% of its consented noise limit, we had to ensure that existing noise emissions were reduced sufficiently to allow the addition of the new dryer, boiler and expanded dry store. We were also responsible for preparing an assessment of the potential environmental noise effects resulting from the expansion for resource consent purposes. Noise measurements were undertaken during and after construction to verify that our noise control measures were successful.
Our design included treating a number of existing noise sources on site, such as the dryer air intakes and discharges, with a particular regard for reducing the presence of tonality. Other noise control measures such as solid timber fences for traffic noise control were used in the design.