Adjustment of Guiyang-Guangzhou Railway Project

Adjustment of Guiyang-Guangzhou Railway Project

Supplementary Environmental Impact Assessment

Summary Report

China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co., Ltd.

June 2012, Chengdu

IProject Overview

(I)Overview of the original project

The New Guiyang-Guangzhou Railway Project starts from the North Guiyang Railway Station and ends at the South Guangzhou Railway Station, via GuiyangCity, QiannanAutonomousPrefecture and QiandongnanAutonomousPrefecture in GuizhouProvince, Liuzhou City, Guizhou City and HezhouCity in Guangxi Autonomous Region, and FoshanCity, ZhaoqingCity and GuangzhouCity in GuangdongProvince. The length of main line is 857.300km. The Project is designed as a Class I double-track railway, with a design speed of 200km/h, employing electrictraction. In the original plan, there are 317 bridges of 171,411 linear meters, 240 tunnels of 476,660 linear meters and 35 stations. The floor area of the Project totals as 4472.46 ha., including permanent land occupation of 2484.72 ha. and temporary land occupation of 1987.74 ha. The debris volume is 95,562,500m3 and the soil borrow volume is 3,411,800m3. The estimated total investment amount of the Project is 79.9711 billion yuan.

The Project is planned to commence in 2008 and complete in 2013, with a construction period of 6 years.

In July 2008, the Environmental Protection Department gave reply on the Project with Official Reply on Environmental Impact Report of New Guiyang-Guangzhou Railway Project (HS[2008] No.258). In September 2008, the National Development and Reform Commission gave reply on the feasibility study report of the Project with FGJC[2008] No.2526 Document. In December 2008, the Project was formally commenced.

However, in December 2009, variations were made for functional orientation and main technical standards of the New Guiyang-Guangzhou Railway Project.

(II)Status of variation of the original project

Variations of the New Guiyang-Guangzhou Railway Project mainly include: The railway was changed from a Class I railway to a passenger dedicated line, the design speed was increased from 200km/h to 250km/h, the originally designed freight transportation facilities were deleted, the quality and level of passenger transportation service were improved and the track structure of the whole line was changed from ballasted track to ballastless track. See Table 1, 2 and 3 for details of main changes.

Table 1Comparison on project scope and construction scale

1

Table 2Comparison on design route schemes

1

Table 3Comparison on adjustments to route scheme in feasibility study stage

IIEnvironmental impact assessment of the Project

(I)Assessment of impact on ecological environment

After variation, the horizontal deviation of line location is within 2km, and the ecological status in the changed section is basically kept same with that of the original scheme. Also, the vegetation and land use types are basically kept as same as those in the original scheme.

In the original project, totally seven ecological sensitive areas are included. After variation, works located in the four ecological sensitive points (i.e. the Province-level Nature Reserve of Shoucheng, the Province-level Resort in Rongjiang and Gurong, the National Forest Park of Mountain Longjiashan and QianlingPark) have not been changed. For those avoiding the Congjiang province-level Resort, works located in the two ecological sensitive points (the National Resort in LipingdongVillage and the Yangshuo National Forest Park) have been slightly changed. Detailed changes are shown as below.

DongVillage National Resort in Liping was classed as the fifth batch of national key resorts by the State Council in January 2004. According to the Overall Planning of Dong Village National Resort in Liping the total planned area of resort is 153km2, including four sites of Zhaoxing-Diping, Bazhai-Jiuchao, Yandong-Koujiang and Tiansheng Bridge-Bazhou River, one old building cluster of Lipingqiao Street, 2 independent scenic spots of Shangzhong and Hongzhou. In the original plan, the line is designed as Luoxiang Tunnel to cross Dong Village Resort in Liping and the inlet/outlet of the tunnel are both located outside the resort. The length of line crossing the resort is 5.6km.In order to carry out the proposal of “further optimization of Congjiang Station and Rongjiang Station, strictly control the construction scale of the station and yard, prevent environment problems from secondary planning and development” approved in the original environment assessment report, the location of Congjiang Station is to relocate out side the Congjiang Resort, resulting in little deviation of line location when the line is crossing the development and control area of Dong Village Resort in Liping, and it has added small scale of subgrade and bridge works (including 1.06km of subgrade and 0.25km of Batang Double-track Major Bridge).In the report, it is proposed that the works will occupy a few lands after variation, with no influence on the scenic sport in the landscape area from project construction. By taking advantage of landscape greening measures, the Project has little impact on the scenic area. At the same time, the Project has been incorporated in the traffic planning of the scenic area, and the project construction shall be in compliance with related planning of Dong Village National Resort in Liping.

Yangshuo National Forest Park is located in the Xingping Town at northeast of Yangshuo County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, classed as National Forest Park [Forest Permit (2005) No. 956] by State Forestry Bureau in 2006, total area of 3391.7 hectares. In the original plan, the length of the line crossing the forest park is 587.05m, as the Xingfuyuan Tunnel and XingfuyuanDouble-trackSuperMajorBridge crossing the forest park. Since the curve radius is adjusted slightly, it can cross the forest park by the bridge along the changed line, and dip 120m toward south at the same time. Therefore, the line is of 200m in the park, 387.05m shorter than that in the original environment assessment plan. It has little impact on the forest and vegetation in the park and the landscape after variation.

After variation, a land area of 4138.41 hectares is occupied by the works. Compared with the original environmental evaluation plan, it has been reduced 333.59 hectares. The permanent lands occupied by the works are 2368.08 hectares, and temporary lands are 1770.33 hectares; the permanent arable lands occupied are 1125.7 hectares, and the temporary arable lands are 925 hectares.

Table 4Comparison on land use before and after project adjustment

Unit: hm2

After changes in the feasibility study, there are 371 spoil grounds/disposal sites. Compared with those (347 spoil grounds/disposal sites) in the original environmental assessment, 24 spoil grounds/disposal sites are added. Site selection of 280 spoil grounds/disposal sites are basically kept the same as those in the original environmental assessment, and that of 91 spoil grounds/disposal sites has been adjusted. Land occupied mainly includes waste land, land with sparse woods and dry land with low yield, etc. Disposal sites are generally located in waste gullies and waste land not easily subject to water scouring. Therefore, the site selection of such spoil grounds/disposal sites meets relevant environmental requirements. There are 9 borrow areas in total. Five borrow areas have been adjusted. Land occupied includes waste land and garden plot. No basic farmland or woodland has been occupied by borrow area. Therefore, the site selection of borrow area meets relevant environmental requirements.

In the original environmental assessment scheme, the designed construction access road totals as 976.2km. Based on site investigation, the actual length of construction access roads newly built during construction of the project totals as 885km with a floor area of 91.2km. Compared with that in the design, 91.2km has been reduced. Land occupied mainly includes brush land, shrub land and dry land. The excavation of construction access road will change, bury or damage the original vegetation and terrain, which will damage the soil and water conservation of the original land and resulting in water loss and soil erosion to some extent. Based on site investigation, both sides of construction access road for the project are provided with tree planting and greening measures, effectively reducing the amount of water loss and soil erosion.

Table 5Arrangement of other large-scale temporary facilities

According to a field survey, apart from the spoil ground and the access route in the Project, the temporarily occupied lands include 9 gradation stations, 240 construction camps, 14 beam yards, 4 Track slab yards, 158 batching plants. The occupied lands are mainly brush land, shrub land and dry land. During construction, the temporary works occupy the land, interrupt the land surface and damage the vegetation, these actions changed the functions of land use and made the land hardened, and thus it destroys and exerts a certain influence on the water conservation function of the original land and the eco-environment.

After the analysis of the report, it is regarded that the principle of ecologically protecting measures are consistent with the original environmental evaluation. As the road sections in sensitive area of scenic spots in Lipingdong Town are adjusted into bridges, subgrade and tunnels which pass through the development and control area planning in this scenic spot from the original total tunnel, the variation of engineering construction have certain impact on the scenic spots, strengthen the design of landscape coordination in combination of the requirements for follow-up construction in the development and control area planning in this spot. In accordance with the requirements of the original report and the approval, the engineering protection and environmental protection for spoil (ballast) works shall be well conducted, and the eco-recovery measures of temporary lands occupied such as construction camp, beam yard, track slab yard, batching plant and the access road shall be taken well.

(II)Assessment of impact on acoustical environment

1Present quality and protection objective

In the original report, there are 304 acoustic environment sensitive points, including 261 in residential area, 41 in school and 2 in hospital. After variation, 45 new sensitive points have been added due to deviation of line location, including 50 in residential area, 2 in school and 1 in hospital; 64 sensitive points have been reduced, including 50 in residential area and 14 in school. Moreover, totally 285 acoustical environmental sensitive points are distributed along the line, including 253 in residential area, 29 in school and 3 in hospital. See Table 6 for details.

Table 6Addition and deletion of acoustic environment sensitive points

2Major environmental impact and proposed protection measures