How loud can a construction site be, and can we work at night?

The Noise regulation applies to construction sites as well as residential, commercial, industrial and environmentally sensitive areas and roadsides. It does not cover noise inside buildings, mosque loudspeakers, military activities, warning sirens, airports, railways, port operations or national ceremonies.^{1Noise reg. Art. 2}

Limits are set as LAeq,T in decibels for each zone, with separate daytime and night-time values:

Density is defined by homes or people per area. Low density is 4 to 8 residential units per 10,000 m², medium density 9 to 14 units and high density 15 to 20 units.^{3Noise reg. Art. 1}

The surroundings of hospitals, schools, elder care centres, nurseries and environmentally sensitive areas are listed in zone A, the strictest category.^{4Noise reg. Art. 4(1)(a)}

Construction work means drilling, building, demolition, repair and directly related activities.^{3Noise reg. Art. 1}

On construction sites the zone limits may be exceeded from 7 am to 6 pm. The excess may not go beyond the correction values in Table 4.^{5Noise reg. Art. 7(1) and (2)}

The correction depends on the period of construction activities:

The regulation does not define 'period of construction activities'. It does not say whether it means the daily duration of the noisy activity, the measurement period or the length of the project.^{6Noise reg. Art. 7, Table 4}

If the period is read as daily duration, a zone B site (55 dB by day) could reach 65 dB for up to 2.5 hours, 60 dB for 2.5 to 8 hours and 55 dB beyond 8 hours. This is an illustration derived from Tables 1 and 4, not a figure stated in the regulation.^{6Noise reg. Art. 7, Table 4}

Exceeding the corrected limits during the specified periods is prohibited unless NCEC has issued a prior permit.^{7Noise reg. Art. 7(3)}

Daytime runs from 7 am to 8 pm and night-time from 8 pm to 7 am.^{3Noise reg. Art. 1}

The construction allowance ends at 6 pm. Between 6 pm and 8 pm a site is held to the plain daytime limit of its zone, and from 8 pm to 7 am to the night-time limit, with no correction.^{8Noise reg. Art. 7(1)}

Exceeding the residential and commercial limits without a prior NCEC permit is prohibited. In zone A the night limit is 40 dB and in zone B it is 45 dB.^{9Noise reg. Art. 4(2), Table 1}

The same prohibition applies to roadside and industrial zone limits.^{10Noise reg. Art. 5(2) and Art. 6(2)}

A noise permit lets its holder temporarily exceed the periods or limits set in the regulation. You apply on NCEC's forms and to its requirements.^{11Noise reg. Art. 10(1)}

The permit process works as follows:

The permittee must comply with the permit conditions. It must also submit periodic progress reports on its action plan to meet the allowed noise levels, as the permit specifies.^{17Noise reg. Art. 10(6) and (7)}

Holders of environmental permits that require noise monitoring must follow NCEC's monitoring requirements. They must keep monitoring data for at least 3 years and provide it to NCEC on request.^{18Noise reg. Art. 8(1) and (2)}

NCEC may require noise modelling, noise maps and a noise reduction action plan when permitting a new activity, after a complaint about an existing activity, or after an inspection or audit.^{19Noise reg. Art. 9(1)}

Appendix 1 lists what each measurement record should include:^{20Noise reg. Appendix 1, First}

Preferred measurement conditions are:

If these conditions cannot be met, the adverse conditions must be recorded and additional measurements may be needed.^{28Noise reg. Appendix 1, Second (3)}

The regulation does not state where compliance is measured for residential and commercial zones. For industrial zones it says the limits apply including the outdoor premises of activities.^{29Noise reg. Art. 6(1)}

The Noise regulation does not name who may take measurements. The Service Providers regulation requires an NCEC licence before anyone provides environmental services, and lists monitoring of environmental media and pollution sources as a service type.^{30SP reg. (1446H) Art. 4 and Art. 6(1)}

The person commissioning the work is responsible for choosing a provider from NCEC's approved list.^{31SP reg. (1446H) Art. 11(7)}

Table 5 of the Noise regulation sets these fines:^{32Noise reg. Art. 11, Table 5 (2024)}

A 1446H ministerial decision re-issued the Noise penalty table and classed every violation in it as serious. It did not change any amount, range or per-unit qualifier.^{33Decision 15029617 (1446H)}

The decision takes effect from its publication in the Official Gazette.^{33Decision 15029617 (1446H)}

These are the most common ways construction sites fall foul of the noise rules: