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Reducing LCLS Construction Impact

(Image - Noise Monitoring) SLAC engineers and construction managers are taking steps—well in advance of heavy construction—to understand the sorts of disturbances that building the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) might bring to the surrounding area.

By all measures the LCLS is an exciting project that the SLAC community is eager to see underway. But for all of us working onsite and people living in the surrounding community, that eagerness is likely tempered by the prospect of noisy cement trucks raising clouds of dust.

SLAC will soon publish a brochure explaining what construction-related disturbances can be expected and the steps SLAC is taking to reduce or eliminate them.

One of the first steps is to estimate the expected noise during construction, such as that from the back-up alarms used on construction vehicles. Recently, to get a better handle on how those alarms might affect our nearest neighbors, SLAC sent noise monitors into the Stanford Hills neighborhood with a decibel meter. Meanwhile, back at SLAC, another crew set about driving around in reverse to see if the beeping carried measurably off site.

This preliminary test showed that, at least during the daytime, these alarms generally cannot be heard by SLAC's neighbors.

This is only the beginning of SLAC's efforts to characterize and mitigate the disturbances expected while building LCLS. Future efforts will include attempts to estimate the effect of low-frequency noise and vibration, such as that caused by tunneling.

—Brad Plummer
    SLAC Today, June 5, 2006

Image: Scott Wenholz was part of a team sent into the surrounding community to measure expected LCLS construction noise levels. (Click on image for larger version.)