المملكة: "Riyadh ownership": Cameras and fines to control project dust in Riyadh

Acknowledged The Royal Commission for the City of Riyadh A package of strict environmental measures for field control of dust and emissions resulting from all construction projects in the capital, with the aim of protecting public health and raising air quality through accurate real-time monitoring.

These comprehensive measures aim to restrict the spread of suspended particles in all stages of construction, starting from excavation and site preparation operations, through demolition and material transportation, all the way to cutting work and the use of crushers.

The Authority imposed strict controls within Project sites require contractors to pave truck paths with gravel or recycled asphalt, while continuing to spray the exposed soil with water, and compact it immediately after the end of digging to prevent dust from flying.

The regulations require the use of dust-fixing chemicals in sites where work stops for more than five days, while restricting the height of unloading loads to a maximum of one and a half meters, and reducing it to one meter in the event of strong winds.

And to reduce the transmission of pollution. Outside of the projects, the Authority obligated contractors to install automatic systems for washing truck tires, or to create water-flooding networks at the entry and exit gates to ensure that the vehicles are free of any dirt particles before they leave.

The instructions also stressed the necessity of cleaning the path of trucks within 15 minutes of their departure, with automated sweeping of the roads adjacent to medium and large projects at a rate of once every hour.

With regard to the storage of raw materials and construction waste, the directives prohibited exceeding the height of the piles. Three meters, with the obligation to cover it daily, and use sealed silos equipped with high-precision filters to store cement.

To combat the heavy dust resulting from Demolition operations, the Authority imposed the use of water spray cannons with a range of up to 30 meters, while prohibiting the implementation of any demolition work or dry stone cutting in the open air if the wind speed exceeds 15 kilometers per hour.

The regulations obliged quarry owners to keep their sites at least 200 meters away from residential and sensitive areas such as schools and hospitals, and to provide them with advanced fog, suction, and dust filtration systems.

To ensure actual implementation, the Authority required the installation of real-time monitoring devices for suspended particles (10PM) that capture readings every two minutes, and link them directly to the database of the National Center for Oversight of Environmental Compliance.

It also included Control requirements: Installing surveillance cameras at all gates, keeping their recordings for 90 days, and receiving immediate notifications to correct the situation if dust levels exceed the permissible limits.

The legislation assigned the National Center for Environmental Compliance Monitoring the tasks of field monitoring, and granted it broad powers that include issuing warnings, imposing financial fines, and issuing immediate orders to stop work for violators.

The measures did not exclude small projects such as residential villas, as they obligated their owners. Sprinkling the soil manually while digging, preventing the use of screens to sort the soil, and prohibiting the storage of waste outside the project boundaries.

The Authority adopted a three-tier classification of projects based on the level of risk, starting with the low category for projects with an area of less than 2,000 square metres, passing through to the medium category of up to 5,000 square metres.

While projects exceeding an area of 5,000 square metres, or witnessing heavy traffic of more than 50 trucks per day, were classified as a category. High risks require the highest levels of environmental control and compliance.