4 August 2014

The Costain Skanska Joint Venture constructing Crossrail’s new Paddington Station has recently pledged to improve further the air quality around its Eastbourne Terrace site.

The pledge to Westminster City Council cements the project’s dedication to improving its local environment. In recent years there has been plenty of discussion about air pollution in the Greater London Authority (GLA) region. Air quality is a localised issue and in some parts of the GLA the air quality is at dangerous levels. One of the hotspots is the City of Westminster and in particular the Paddington area, which is among the worst in Europe.

This Air Quality pledge is a City of Westminster and Paddington Business Improvement District (BID) initiative and focuses on:

• raising the profile of air quality through suppliers and staff,
• reducing gas consumption,
• promoting sustainable transport,
• Assessing the supply chain and improving their air quality performance - creating platforms to enable discussion with the extensive Paddington Station supply chain of businesses.

Project Director, Vicknayson Thevendran, said: “We are all aware of the current issues surrounding air quality in the capital and to date I believe the project has implemented a robust system to reduce our operational impacts, but we can always improve. The discussions held while signing up for the pledge were extremely insightful and very motivational. I’m proud that our project is one of the first from the construction sector to make such a pledge and look forward to including these measures in our business as usual operations.”

So far the project has reduced the road miles and has transported approximately 100,000 tonnes of materials via rail and barge. With the implementation of the Green Transport Plan, 95% of staff now use public transport to get to work. The project has also installed a second electrical supply on site to replace diesel powered generators and plant. There has also been a mandatory rule that non-road mechanical machinery will meet EU Emission Stage IIIB.

Ends

 

Media Enquiries
Costain Communications Department
01628 842585
[email protected]