Campaigners have claimed that a potential third runway at Heathrow Airport will cause 30 years of mayhem. In this blog we look at what the airport’s masterplan includes.
The scale of the £14billion Heathrow Airport expansion has now been revealed thanks to the ‘preferred masterplan’. When completed, the area covered by Heathrow will expand by more than half from four-and-a-half square miles to seven square miles If it is given the green light, hundreds of homes and businesses in nearby villages will be demolished, engineers will divert roads, three car parks for 52,500 cars will be built and new rail links connecting Heathrow to the Southern network and the Great Western Main Line will be created. Terminals two and five will be expanded to accommodate and additional 60million passengers and 260,000 extra flights per year.
What campaigners say
According to opponents, the enormous expansion would have a ‘profound’ impact on communities across London and the Home Counties. The No 3rd Runway Coalition group said that Heathrow seemed to want to ‘spread the misery of their expansion plans over a 30-year period, inflicting the blight of construction and the resultant increases in air and noise pollution on communities across London for decades’.
When is noise harmful?
Noise pollution is any noise that is excessive, annoying, irritating and harmful. And a harmful level of noise is anything 85 decibels (dB) and above. Putting that into perspective, an everyday conversation is about 50dB while your daily alarm clock ringing reaches 60dB.
Mitigation from Heathrow
The airport has outlined plans to alleviate the impact on the environment and people living in the vicinity. Measures include compensating homeowners with 125% of the value of their property. Around £2.6billion is to be put to one side for compensation, noise insulation for residents and businesses and to fund community amenities. Emma Gilthorpe, Heathrow’s executive director for expansion, said: “Expansion must not come at any cost. “That is why we have been working…to ensure our plans show we can grow sustainably and responsibly.”
Timeline
Heathrow Airport has submitted its masterplan to a three-month public consultation. It is expected to apply for planning permission in 2020. It is on course to open the third runway by 2026 but it is estimated that the project would not be completed until around 2050.
How Echo Barrier can help
There’s been a wealth of research around the detrimental impact noise can have on our health with issues such as hearing loss, amnesia, stress and heart disease, to name but a few. Echo Barrier provide ways to help manage noise pollution in several industries and as noise experts, we have seen first-hand evidence of the damage that exposure to excessive noise can have on people’s quality of life. We have developed our market-leading acoustic barriers to help reduce noise and protect the health of the local community. They typically reduce noise by 90-97%, and are lightweight, weatherproof and adaptable to any setting. So, whether you are looking for temporary or permanent noise solutions, we will have a product to suit your needs.