Major Amsterdam construction project halted over noise pollution

De Omgevingsdienst Noordzeekanaalgebied, which is the North Sea Canal Area Environmental Service, has stopped a new construction project in the Bijlmer, Amsterdam because the construction was making way too much noise. No more work will be allowed on the site from next Monday. According to the service, the noise is unacceptable as many homes are in the area.

The construction started on Monday. The first reports of complaints came in the next day. Measurements by the environmental department show that noise standards have been significantly exceeded. "Something that would not be the case if the construction company used a different, quieter piling technique," said the environmental service. Piling is carried out during construction using vibro piles, among other things. These are hollow metal tubes.

"That is not the best available technique. We have, therefore, not granted an exemption for those vibro piles," says director Mario Bakker of the environmental department. "We have repeatedly indicated that piling with vibro piles would not be the best available silent technique because this method makes too much noise. We must intervene if the construction company decides to start construction without an exemption."

The new construction project, Brasa Village, consists of 520 movable houses divided into 13 buildings. It will be there for 15 years. It is a project of the Amsterdam housing corporations Eigen Haard, Ymere, and Rochdale. According to the environmental agency, construction can continue as long as the developers build "according to the laws and regulations in this country."

Housing corporation Rochdale understands that the work has been halted. "We thought we would receive an exemption to start piling and started doing so on Monday before we had received the exemption," says a spokesperson. "We started out of turn because we wrongly assumed that the noise would not be as bad as expected. Different poles were used than expected."

The Environmental Department will still allow piling for this week. The idea is for the builders to screw the piles into the ground instead of driving them into the ground. If permitted by the environmental department, the builders would like to continue working next week, right before the three-week construction holiday starts.

The construction holiday will start next week in the case that the environmental agency does not give permission for the screws. "If the environmental agency does not allow it, we will stop," said the Rochdale spokesperson. He expects that a solution will be found during the construction sector holidays.