Environmental guidance for your business in Northern Ireland & Scotland
Where you use wagons to remove material from site, consider providing an area where they can turn around without needing to reverse. This will remove the need for a banksman and will reduce the noise from reverse alarms.
Ensure that employee and delivery vehicles, where possible, use only major roads.
Make smaller villages, residential areas and routes that pass schools 'no go' routes for construction traffic. This will help to reduce the level of disturbance and concern felt by local communities.
Public concerns can be further reduced by making sure that delivery drivers and employees drive below the speed limit, particularly in built up areas.
For some major developments, your local council may use planning conditions to specify routes to be used in order to minimise disruption to local communities and businesses.
Ensure that construction vehicles have clean wheels before they access public highways and that they do not drop mud or other debris onto public roads. For certain types of developments this may be specified in the planning consent from your local council.
Where the spoil from your operations is slurry or is very wet, use wagons with tailgate seals to prevent leaks onto roads. Check that all handles on the tailgate are locked in place. If they are not, the seal will not be effective.
Run-off from site roads can contain oil and diesel, as well as high levels of silt. If contaminated water enters surface water drains or watercourses you could be prosecuted for causing pollution. You must take steps to prevent this. These could include:
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Road sweepers at construction sites
Wheel washing at construction sites
Refrigerated transport and equipment
Travel plans and green transport for offices
Vehicle air-conditioning systems
Vehicle cleaning (including wheel washing)
Vehicle movements and deliveries at construction sites
Groundwater in Northern Ireland, DAERA have produced a leaflet to raise awareness about this untapped resource
EU Exit, EU Exit useful information
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