Olympic Route Network will curb Games' pollution, says TfL

Transport for London (TfL) has predicted the capital's air quality could improve overall during the Olympic Games this summer, but pollution will breach legal limits in some hotspots, as a result of traffic calming measures designed to ensure athletes and officials reach venues quickly.

TfL yesterday published a study forecasting how the Olympic Route Network (ORN) – a series of roads linking all the 2012 venues that will feature temporary traffic management measures such as road and lane closures, changes to traffic signal timings and restricted turns – could impact air quality in the capital. 

The report found the ORN could help to slightly reduce net reduction in PM10 and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) emissions overall when compared to pollution levels in the same areas in August last year.

But it also predicted a handful of areas could exceed legal limits,  particularly NO2 emissions along roads near the main southern approaches to the Olympic Park.

It said there would be an eight to one ratio of improvement. Around 0.4 square kilometres (km2) currently exceeding legal NO2 EU limits will remain at the same level or fall below the limit. But 0.05 km2 which currently have safe limits will exceed legal allowances.

A spokesman from TfL told BusinessGreen it was formulating a plan for the best way to reduce pollution at those hotspots, including dust suppressant technology which effectively glues pollution to the roads, and retrofitting single deck buses with specialist equipment to reduce NOx emissions.

But green groups warned London would still exceed NO2 pollution limits during the Games and urged TfL to develop longer term measures to improve London's air quality.

"This report states clearly that London will be well over the European legal limits on NO2 air pollution during the Olympic year and we may well tip over the edge on particulate pollution as well," Jenny Jones, Green Party member of the London Assembly, told BusinessGreen.

"The impact on air pollution along the Olympic Route Network really depends upon how successful Transport for London are in reducing traffic during the Games and no one can really predict that until the Games actually start."

She added she was concerned the proposed mitigation measures would only reduce recordings of pollution at monitor stations rather than tackling the broader problem of poor air quality.

"I hope that visitors to London will remember pictures of amazing athletes, rather than images of dust suppressant machines sneaking out at night to glue pollution to the roads," she said.