Environmental Assessment
Volume C-5.5
Slurry Pipeline
Traffic
required on a daily basis for the pipeline. The number of vehicles required is
summarized for the construction period of the project in Table 5.5-2. Operations
period traffic for pipeline monitoring and maintenance is expected to be much
lower, presenting a negligible impact. The quantity of traffic during construction
represents a relatively small fraction of existing baseline traffic provided in
Table 5.5-1, although it may represent a moderate or high proportion of traffic
along the smaller access roads between RN2 and the pipeline RoW.
Table 5.5-2 Pipeline Vehicle Numbers per Day along a Portion of RN2 between
Toamasina and Moramanga
(a)
Project Phase
Vehicle Types Number of Vehicles (Round Trips per Day)
trucks
5
buses
1
construction (3 years)
Total
6
(a)
Traffic numbers are estimates based on project description as of May, 2005.
Numbers of trucks along the route will increase about 1% due to pipeline
construction activity. These trucks will be relatively large (equipped to carry
20 tons) and in many cases will carry lengths of pipe that will make them among
the longest vehicles on the RN2. For this reason, despite their relative
infrequency, these vehicles will be noticed by other drivers and people along the
road.
Numbers of buses will increase by less than 1% during construction.
Based on the number of vehicles estimated in Table 5.5-2, the annual distances to
be travelled by project vehicles along RN2 is summarized in Table 5.5-3. It has
been assumed that the average distance travelled to the pipeline access point
along RN2 is half of the distance between Toamasina and Moramanga.
Table 5.5-3 Vehicle Kilometres per Year Along RN2
Project Phase
Vehicle Types
km per Year
trucks
484,000
buses
97,000
construction (3 years)
Total
(a)
580,000
(a)
Figures have been rounded and may not sum exactly to total as presented.
The effects of the slurry pipeline on traffic will be highest during construction,
which will still represent a very small proportion of the total traffic volume along
RN2. Traffic volume effects will be most apparent along each of the improved
Ambatovy Project
200
January 2006
