Feasibility of Using Quiet Pavement Technology to Attenuate Traffic Noise in Texas: Fid-Bau Portal

Feasibility of Using Quiet Pavement Technology to Attenuate Traffic Noise in Texas

M. T. McNerney / B. J. Landsberger / S. Burcsak / J. DeMoss / W. H. Yoo

The effect of traffic noise are a serious concern in the United States and the rest of the world. One significant component of traffic noise is tire/pavement interaction. Protecting individual receivers by reducing pavement noise at the source rather than by using traffic noise barriers may result in substantial cost reductions and improved community acceptance of highway projects. This research consisted of field-testing 200 different pavements of several different types found in Texas using a trailer test vehicle developed to conform to ISO Standard 11819 'Method for Measuring the Influence of Road Surfaces of Traffic Noise-Part 2: The Close Proximity Method.' The test results indicated a range of tire pavement noise measured approximately 7 dB with a jointed concrete pavement as the highest and a thin flexible seal coat as the quietest. A weak correlation was found between the age or serviceability rating of dense asphaltic concrete pavements and the measured noise levels that tend to weakly support the hypothesis of increasing noise over time. Testing indicated that the outer microphone location of 400 mm was influenced by tow vehicle and testing at the inner microphone location was independent of tow vehicle for the Texas test trailer constructed.