China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd.：Innovating in applied technology to protect the marine biodiversity effectively

 

Company profile
 
China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC) is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company Ltd. (CCCC). It provides infrastructure portfolio, which covers the business of marine engineering, dredging and reclamation, roads and bridges, railways and airports. Based on the abundant expertise and experiences in overseas engineering, excellent management team, high-quality internationalized staff and worldwide business network, CHEC has formed diverse service mode covering D&B、EPC、PMC、BOT、BT, etc.
 
Challenges
 
The Penang second cross-sea bridge of Malaysia, a cooperation project between the Chinese government and the Malaysian government, with a total investment of $ 1.5 billion, is the largest infrastructure project in Malaysia in the past 20 years. The bridge crosses the Penang strait. CHEC is responsible for the design and construction of the part of the bridge above the sea, and the contract value reaches $ 720 million.
 
Work undertaken by CHEC is all on water engineering, and the length of waters surrounding the construction area reaches 16.3 kilometers, among which 11 kilometers need to be dredged because the water is to shallow to meet the draft requirement of working ships. The construction area of the project is originally a fishing area, and the water near to the land is a cage culture area, which is rich both in the variety and number of species like fishes. Since the cost of recovery after damage to biological diversity having been made is huge, and some damage is irreversible, how to strengthen environmental management in the process of construction and to minimize its influence on the diversity of marine creatures are questions that badly need to be solved for CHEC.
 
Solutions
 
CHEC strengthens the monitoring and management of the environmental protection of the waters surrounding the construction area before, during and after the construction process, and establishes information technology system to conduct real-time monitoring of the construction environment. By working with third-party organization, it assesses the impact of the project on the environment regularly to reduce the impact of construction on the marine biodiversity.
 
Implement environmental protection management to strengthen it in the early design
 
The project department made a specific environmental protection working guideline based on CHEC’s environmental protection requirements and the unique characteristics of this project, established an environmental protection management and organization system with project manager as the chief responsible person, employed local registered senior HSE (health, safety and environment) managers to manage the project professionally and employed three environmental consulting companies to compile Project Environmental Management Plan, Environmental Monitoring and Auditing in the Construction Area of the Bridge, and Environmental Monitoring and Auditing for Dredging Construction, Mud Transporting Line and Dumping Area respectively.
 
Strengthen supervision of informatization to achieve real-time monitoring
 
In order to make sure that working ships all moves in given areas and to control their influence on the surrounding environment, the project department equipped all self-propelled working ships with GPS and AIS. Built on this, the project department established a water traffic control center networking with proprietors, government environmental protection, maritime affairs and port management departments, so as to realize real-time monitoring. Besides, all dredger pontoons were equipped with hopper sensors and draft sensors, connecting with phone numbers of proprietors, and relative responsible person of the government environmental protection, maritime affairs and port management departments. Supervision department will receive warning signals as soon as there is irregularity.
 
Hire the third party to assess the impact of constructions on environment
 
In order to monitor and control the influence of construction activities on marine environment, the project department set 18 water quality monitoring stations in the construction area, 4 in the mud transporting line area, and 4 in the dumping area, and a third-party environmental consulting institute was involved to conduct water sampling and analysis each month. The project department also employed third-party institutes to take photos of the overall index of solid suspended objects in the construction sea area with satellite remote sensing devices and to make analysis and evaluation so as to further monitor pollution in the construction area. Meanwhile, considering the influence of construction noise on the staff and its surrounding environment, the project department also employed professional third-party consulting institutes to monitor and control noises in the construction area.
 
Achievement
 
Social benefit
 
The investment of this project in environmental protection is up to $ 10 million and it takes 58 months from starting construction to completion. One hundred and sixty-six monitoring reports submitted by third-party institutes indicate that the influences caused by project construction to environment are all controlled within the index range. Apart from this, the state agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries commission employed third-party professional institutes to monitor the project construction and the amount of fish in the surrounding area. Results show that the amount of fish was not reduced and the amount of some fishes even increased. What’s more, dolphins, which are very sensitive to marine environment, were often found in the construction area. The achievements made by the Penang second bridge project in protecting biological diversity were highly praised by the consulting institutes of the project, proprietors and related government departments.
 
Economic benefit
 
CHEC has effectively protected the marine biodiversity of the waters surrounding the construction area. It seems that the company has invested a lot of money, but it has avoided the management costs to restore the marine biodiversity after causing damage and the negative impact on the company's reputation, and control the risk effectively. The project not only won a reasonable profit, but also was recognized by the Malaysian governments, the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia, the proprietors, the surrounding residents, and local media because of its good performance in environmental protection, which is conducive to CHEC to enhance its local brand influence, and further promote the economic and friendly cooperation between Malaysia and China. The project has become a benchmark for CHEC’s overseas projects and has become a representative case among internal and overseas bidding, which is conducive to promoting the healthy and sustainable development overseas.
 
Prospect
 
CHEC follows the cultural philosophy of “be inclusiveness, following the nature and be excellent”, and produces high-quality projects, environmental friendly projects, to pursue sustainable development. With high standards and strict requirements, it gets all staff involved in the training in project environmental management, takes initiative to protect the environment, and provide guarantee in activity organization, technological plans and investment, making the construction process controlled under the redline. 
 
The proprietors and stakeholders satisfied and spoke highly of the project, thus enhancing the company's reputation and laying a solid foundation for the long-term development. At present, CHEC is vigorously promoting the philosophy in environmental management of the project to integrate it into all projects under construction and requires them to do a good job of environment protection to promote the harmonious coexistence and development of human and environment.