Heathrow Airport expansion proposal: air quality sensitivity analysis

As part of the review of the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), the UK Government assessed Heathrow Airport expansion proposals produced by seven organisations. Two schemes remain under active consideration by the Government. For one of these, the Heathrow West scheme, promoted by Arora Group / Heathrow West Limited, CERC was part of a support team of specialist consultants engaged by Arora Group for their submission to the ANPS review. For the proposed expansion scheme, which includes a 2,800 m third runway, CERC`s air quality analysis included:

• a semi-quantitative analysis of operational phase human health impacts;
• a qualitative analysis of relative potential effects at ecological receptors; and
• a further qualitative analysis of construction phase impacts.

As part of our analysis, we considered potential traffic disruptions during the construction of road schemes relating to airport expansion. These were based on disruption caused by current works for upgrading M25 Junction 10; the figure shows traffic speeds recorded for a section of the M25 before and during the works. This is an area of concern for which the Government has requested further information from promoters of the two remaining schemes. CERC`s report is included as Appendix D of Arora Group`s submission, with a summary of the air quality analysis in Section 10.