Produced for Claylands Green Area NLE Action Group, 18 May 2011

NORTHERN LINE EXTENSION AND YOUR HOME

Groundborne noise and vibration

30

40 38 36 34 32 28
41.7 37.8
41.8 41.3 40.8 40 39.3
7

The numbers 30m

shown in bold
approx above
(Not to scale) indicate the noise
impacts on Nos 28-40 of a tunnel running beneath 40,
Claylands Road.

There will be similar impacts on Nos 42-52 and on

homes everywhere else on either side of the two
24m
tunnels that will run through our area.

We have extrapolated the figures from data taken from

the 2008Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)2 that
was carried out in for the Battersea and Nine Elms
Developers, who are behind the NLE. It is the only EIA
they have published.

What is groundborne noise and vibration?

As trains pass along the NLE, they will create vibrations that will be transmitted
through the soil to houses close to the line. When they reach your house, they
will set the fabric in motion. This motion will radiate from the building surfaces in
the form of low frequency sound and vibration. You will feel and hear a rumble.
Effectively, your house will have been turned into a giant loudspeaker.

The effects of groundborne vibration include

• Feelable movement of floors
• Rattling of windows
• Shaking of items on shelves or hanging on walls
• Rumbling sounds.
• In extreme cases, it can cause damage to buildings.

Among the factors that exacerbate groundborne vibration and noise, there are
two that are particularly relevant to us
• The nature of the soil - clay soils transmit vibration more efficiently
• Building design - structures with no or minimal foundations and solid
floors are more susceptible to vibration
1. The noise levels are in decibels (dB). Without getting too technical, the scale used for measuring noise
is logarithmic. This means that 31dB is 10% louder than 30dB; 40dB is twice as loud; 50dB is four times as
loud.
2. http://www.northernlineextension.com/media/5548/urs_nle_prelim_env_assessment_final.pdf
Produced for Claylands Green Area NLE Action Group, 18 May 2011

What does this mean for you?

The EIA uses a threshold of 40dB, and concedes that noise will exceed even
this by up to 5dB along the whole of the NLE i.e. up to 45dB.

The developers are now claiming that they will be able to reduce noise and
vibration to 30dB, i.e. to more than halve it. HOWEVER, these claims are not in
writing anywhere, and they have not provided any technical information or
scientific data to support them.

There are other features of groundborne noise you need to bear in mind when
considering any noise and vibration threshold the developers might propose.
1. Groundborne noise sounds louder than ‘normal’ noise at the same dB
level.
2. Annoyance from it often occurs when it exceeds the threshold of
perception by only a small margin.
3. Ground-borne noise causes greater annoyance in areas with low levels
of ambient noise, such as street traffic, than in areas where traffic noise
is louder.
4. Annoyance increases with frequency. 28 trains an hour will run along the
NLE in each direction – one every two minutes. If you live between the
tunnels, or where tunnels run side-by-side, then 56 trains an hour will be
passing by close to your house – one a minute.
5. Annoyance is greater at night times. The NLE is likely to be operating
from 6 in the morning until after midnight, 364 days a year.

What can you do as an individual?

Houses can be shielded to some extent against airborne noise by double-
glazing, curtains etc. If there is street noise outside the front of your house, you
can escape it by moving to the back.

It is virtually impossible to shield buildings from groundborne noise. There is no

escape from it, except by leaving home. Your whole house is affected.

Groundborne noise has got to be stopped at source.

What can we do together?

We can
• Fight for noise and vibration thresholds that are acceptable to
us
• Fight for NLE to be designed, constructed and maintained to a
specification and standard that can be guaranteed to meet it
• Insist that the developers’ claims about noise and vibration
and their proposals for reducing it are subjected to scrutiny
and validation by independent experts acting on our behalf.

Until this happens the present ‘consultation’ is meaningless.