P & D CONSULTANTS - 2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Grand Avenue Widening Project Environmental Impact Report Section 3.0 There are expected to be some short term temporary air quality impacts resulting from demolition and construction of the widened Grand Avenue under Alternative 1. Air pollutants will be emitted by construction equipment and fugitive dust will be generated during grading and site preparation. The EPA has set air pollutant emission factors for construction activities for large development projects. Based on the CLQ Air Quality Handbook (AQMD, 1993), the emission factor for disturbed soil is 26.4 pounds of PM10 per day per acre of disturbed area. If water and/or other soil stabilizers are used, as required under AQMD Rule 403, fugitive dust emissions can be reduced by up to fifty percent. The widening of Grand Avenue could potentially result in short term impacts associated with dust and equipment emissions. It is difficult to quantify emissions from heavy duty equipment because of the day to day variability in construction activities and equipment used. Typical emission rates for construction equipment from the CEOA Air Quality Handbook were used for this analysis. For a project of this size, at least three pieces of heavy equipment, including one scraper, one tractor and one grader, may be expected to operate at any one time. If all three pieces of equipment were to operate over an eight hour period, the emissions that would result would be 14 pounds per day of CO, three pounds per day of NO2, 41 pounds per day of ROG, five pounds per day of SO2 and approximately five pounds per day of PM10. Air pollutants will also be generated by construction workers traveling to and from the job site. However, information is not available at this time to project these emissions accurately although they are usually small in comparison to other construction related emissions. Based on these emissions, construction of the proposed Grand Avenue widening would not exceed the defined AQMD thresholds listed earlier. Therefore, the construction related emissions of the proposed Grand Avenue widening would not be significant. In addition, as noted earlier in Section 2.4 (Geology Impacts Found Not to be Significant), mitigation measures G-3 and G-4 are proposed to reduce dust and erosion emissions associated with the proposed project. No further mitigation is required for short term air quality impacts under Alternative 1. As described earlier in Section 1.0 (Project Description and Project Objectives), it is anticipated that the widening of Grand Avenue under Alternative 1 will be constructed in phases, based on available funding. For example, as funding becomes available, the intersections could be improved, followed later by the widening of Grand Avenue on the segments between the intersections. Therefore, the demolition and construction for the widening under Alternative 1 would not occur in one continuous time period. Demolition and construction activities could occur intermittently over a period of several years before construction of the entire widening project is complete. Therefore, these potential air quality impacts could occur over time, as short segments of the Grand Avenue widening is constructed. However, even with phased construction, the construction related emissions of the proposed Grand Avenue widening would not be significant. F.IPROJ-ENVAGrand eirlNew Text- GrandlSection 3 SplitlSection 3.4.doe Page 3.4-10