6 Future Sustainability Monitoring

6.1 Introduction

Targets and indicators have been identified (refer to Appendix 2) to enable monitoring of the performance of the project and its ability to meet the sustainability objectives.

6.2 Construction Monitoring

6.2.1 Design Monitoring

Monitoring during the Contractor’s design development is likely to include the following:

design for energy efficiency;
design for on-site renewables (if any) and for carbon reduction;
design for transportation and accessibility;
water efficiency during construction; and
low environmental impact materials.

The above measures would support the Sustainable Development Policy for the Project, the sustainability objectives and sustainability in general. Further information is presented in the Sustainable Resource Management Framework and the Materials Plan in Appendix 5. This plan, as translated into the Employers Requirements will be used by Transport Scotland’s FRC Sustainability Team to monitor the progress towards achieving the project sustainability objectives. It will also form part of the basis for evidence gathering for CEEQUAL (refer to Section 7) and also for both the construction and operational monitoring, and should be used by the Contractor during development of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP).

6.2.2 Procurement Stage and Construction Monitoring

The following monitoring of procurement and construction activities is likely to be considered:

the selection of the tenderers based on criteria which will include a review of their sustainability and carbon management credentials;
the construction Contractor will develop an EMP, for the construction phase of the project, as suggested above. By incorporating the information within this Sustainability Appraisal and Carbon Management Report (including the Energy and Carbon Report (Appendix 6) and the Sustainable Resource Management Framework, see Appendix 5), the EMP should aim to minimise and manage potential environmental and sustainability effects of the scheme; and
the construction Contractor’s activities on-site will be monitored by Transport Scotland to ensure the environmental and sustainability requirements of the EMP are delivered appropriately on-site.

The above measures would support the Sustainable Development Policy, sustainability framework objectives and sustainability best practice in general.

6.3 Operational Monitoring

The following monitoring of the operation of the FRC Scheme may be considered in order to check performance against the sustainability objectives and ultimately the delivery of the FRC Sustainable Development Policy.

Scheme reliability:

actual number of planned closures;
actual number of unplanned (non-weather) closures; and
actual number of closures to any class of vehicle due to adverse weather conditions.

Journey time reliability:

average time lost per vehicle kilometre.

Improved Public Transport:

provision of cross-Forth infrastructure to facilitate multi-modal transport.

Safety:

actual accident rates.

Carbon emissions:

actual energy requirement;
actual energy used and CO₂ emissions; and
actual sources of energy for the scheme.

Biodiversity:

number of reported roadkills of protected species; and
number of new records of species and habitats of nature conservation value.

Landscape:

reported significance of residual landscape effects.

Historic Environment:

actual number of and significance of direct and indirect residual effects on archaeological sites and monuments.

Air Quality:

absolute concentrations (µg/m3) for NO2 and PM10 at selected residential properties and other sensitive receptors.

Water

actual number of watercourses impacted and significance of impacts;
actual impacts on water quality; and
percentage of mainline drainage passing through SUDS.