In a joint partnership, The Environmental Law & Policy Center, Respiratory Health Association, and Leopardo Companies, Inc., will work together to create one of Chicago’s first clean diesel construction projects to emit significantly less diesel particulates into the air and provide a healthier environment for people who live, work and play nearby. The project is expected to be completed by fall 2016.
The project will be built in a 265,000-square-foot retail development at 3030 N. Broadway in the Lakeview neighborhood with construction equipment that meets the tightest diesel tailpipe exhaust standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Leopardo also is limiting the time machinery is permitted to idle at the site as another component to its clean diesel practices.
A majority of the heavy equipment onsite meets the EPA’s stringent Tier 4 clean diesel standards, which captures most of the harmful diesel particulates that would otherwise be expelled into the air. In addition, Leopardo hauled a 300-ton crawler crane to the site and retrofitted it with an emissions scrubber to meet the equivalency of the Tier 4 standards.
Pollution from diesel exhaust contains extremely small particles that can lodge deep inside the lungs. Anyone with respiratory challenges, such as asthma, is at greater risk for more health complications when exposed to diesel particulates, said Brian Urbaszewski, the Respiratory Health Association’s Director of Environmental Health Programs.
The property, owned by 3030 N. Broadway LLC, will have a Mariano’s Fresh Market as the anchor of the 5-story building.
