Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for Bahmut Realignment and Ungheni Bypass

CLIENT: Î.S. "Administratia de Stat a Drumurilor" (State Roads Administration) of the Republic of Moldova (SRA).
FINANCING AGENCY EBRD, EIB, IDA/World Bank and EC.
OBJECT Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA).
THE SERVICES
    •        Conduct of Scoping Meeting and Public Hearing.
    •        Description of physical, biological and socioeconomic environment impact analysis.
    •        Environmental Management Plan.
    •        Environmental Monitoring Plan.
    •        Cost Estimate.

The Bahmut realignment and Ungheni bypass are both part of the R1 project road of the Road Sector Program Support Project (RSPSP) which is financed by World Bank and covers approximately 600 km of the Moldovan road network.
The RSPSP is aimed to develop a portfolio of road rehabilitation projects for the Republic of Moldova that could subsequently be proposed for financing to various International Development Partners under separate projects. One of the project roads is the R1 Chisinau-Ungheni-Sculeni-Romanian border, exhibiting a length of 121.3 km. Within the course of the R1 Chisinau - Sculeni two new alignments are planned, the Bahmut realignment and the Ungheni bypass.
The Bahmut realignment bypasses the village of Bahmut and has a length of approximately 5.6 km. The realignment runs parallel to the existing R1 road, southwest to the village of Bahmut and close to an existing railroad track.
The Ungheni bypass is also part of the R1 project road and bypasses the city of Ungheni, a border town to Romania.
Concerning its potential social and environmental impacts the R1 Road rehabilitation is classified as category B, meaning that only an Environmental Management Plan needs to be conducted. However, the Bahmut realignment and Ungheni bypass are new alignment sections, traversing open landscape. After conduct of initial appraisal, the two new alignment sections were classified as category A because of their potential environmental impacts, amongst them being the loss of mature deciduous forest and traversing alongside former wetland area. Therefore the tasks assigned to Kocks Consult comprised the preparation of Environmental and Social Impact Studies including an Environmental Management Plan and a Monitoring Plan.
the services
On the basis of the tasks described above the objective of the assignment consisted of the preparation of environmental and social impact studies in accordance with World Bank safeguard policies.
Main components of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessments consisted of the Project description, the legal framework and the physical, biological and socioeconomic baseline conditions. Overlay of the natural and socioeconomic setting with the planned new alignments allowed the description of impacts on natural and socioeconomic environment including identification of affected persons and assessment of the project's socioeconomic impacts on them.
Main environmental impacts that could be distinguished refer to surface sealing and embankment fill on formerly natural surfaces, traversing of pasture land and associated losses of topsoil, emission of pollutants to air and noise emissions, loss of a mature forest stand, disruption of wildlife habitats and traversing alongside former wetland area.
Feasible and cost effective measures were developed to prevent or reduce significant negative impacts to acceptable levels. The measures are compiled in the Environmental Management Plan and the Environmental Monitoring Plan.
Examples of mitigation measures prepared are the removal, storage and reuse of topsoil, reforestation as a compensation measure for loss of mature forest and description of requirements concerning site selection for asphalt plant and contractors yard. One main focus of the investigation was laid on identification of environmentally safe route alternatives.
The provided services also included the preparation of a cost estimate. Public consultation, including a scoping meeting at the beginning of the assignment and a public hearing after submission of the draft ESIA report was an additional requirement.