Case study: Managing a highly sensitive area

Monash Freeway upgrade,
CPB Contractors

SiteHive enabled CPB Contractors to capture real-time and rich contextual data on noise, dust and vibration, making reporting to local communities faster and easier.

Client

CPB Contractors

Industry

Road infrastructure

Project

Monash freeway upgrade

Products

SiteHive Hexanode Multi and Vibration, SiteHive Enviro Pro

The challenge

Carry out a mammoth road project in a highly sensitive area

Monash Freeway, Victoria's largest and busiest freeway, underwent a $1.08 billion upgrade. Led by CPB Contractors, these major works saw 36km of new lane and 85 gantries to house on-road technology. The team also built new sections of highways to connect freeways, improve interchanges and bridges, and develop new shared user paths for cyclists and pedestrians. The project was required to have the lowest possible effect on the local environment, from residences to vegetation, air quality to water quality, and soil contamination to noise.

CPB Contractor’s Environment Manager Jonathan Rowlands explained, “The project had contractual obligations to minimise the impact on residents and the environment. We reported per these obligations and measured noise, dust and vibration across the works.”

The solution

Thanks to continuous monitoring and real-time alerts, the team mitigated the project’s impact on local communities and the environment.

The project team used SiteHive Hexanode devices to monitor noise and dust in real time. With devices installed close to sensitive residential areas, continuous monitoring has meant the team could proactively manage issues and minimise the impact of site activity. For example, the works used cement-treated crushed rock, which can generate dust. Jonathan said they managed this in real-time with SiteHive’s technology. Continuous data captured with SiteHive Hexanodes was a big change from traditional devices and meant that the team could quickly identify and address issues.

“We set thresholds for PM10 and PM2.5 in line with our contractual obligations and SiteHive alerts us if there are near exceedances. This means we can get in front of any problems and go and sort out the issue.”

Jonathan Rowlands, Environment Manager, Monash Freeway Upgrade

Benefits and features

Rich contextual data: images, audio files and DoA maps

Thanks to SiteHive Enviro software, the team had a complete record of all site activities and could efficiently respond to community complaints. Jonathan said, “We did get complaints, but the project did not always cause them. For example, during the shutdown, we were getting complaints even though no work was being done. Because we had a full record of what was happening on-site, we could show when the noise wasn’t caused by us.”

Highly mobile, set-and-forget, multi-sensor devices

The team had several SiteHive Hexanodes, which they moved around as the project progressed. As the team built the 85 new gantries required on the road, they set up devices next to each gantry for the duration of the work. “SiteHive Hexanodes are great because they are mobile and easy to use. We had 85 sites, but with SiteHive Hexanodes, it was easy to cover them. We just pop out a tripod and leave the device there for a week. Once we’ve finished, we just moved it to the next.”

Reporting that’s easy to do, easy to understand

The team must be in control of what’s happening from an environmental perspective across the whole site. They needed to provide reporting to clients and stakeholders so that everyone felt confident about site activities.

Jonathan said SiteHive Enviro has made this easy. “I have found the SiteHive reporting very useful for our project requirements. The graph presentation was easy to understand, and we could show it to our clients to explain the information in a simple format, giving them confidence in what we were doing. It’s great for showing to people who are not experts.”

Less reliance on consultants

Using SiteHive has also allowed the CPB environmental team to do most of the monitoring themselves, giving them access to more data in a more timely manner.

“For light-scattering devices, having instantaneous and continuous reporting was fantastic. With old devices, there was a lag, and you had to go to the work teams and ask what they were doing on this particular day. Now we can actually see the data in real time.”

Jonathan Rowlands, Environment Manager, Monash Freeway Upgrade

Find out more

See how easy it is with SiteHive on your project.