Implementation and effectiveness of sound mitigation measures on Texas highways (HB 790) : final report.

Details

• Creators:
  Crawford, Jason A. ; Sharma, Sushant ; Ranft, Stephen E. ; Storey, Beverly ; Le, Minh ; Rathod, Yatinkumar K. ; Sanchez, Alfredo ; Overman, John H.
• Corporate Creators:
  Texas A&M Transportation Institute
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Analysis Noise Barriers Noise Control Sound Level Traffic Noise
• Publication/ Report Number:
  PRC 16-64 F
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States;Texas
• Edition:
  Final report
• Corporate Publisher:
  Texas A&M Transportation Institute
• Abstract:
  The 84th Texas Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 790 directing the Texas A&M Transportation
  
  Institute (TTI) to perform a study on the implementation and effectiveness of sound mitigation
  
  measures on the state highway system and certain toll roads and turnpikes. The bill specified the
  
  following:
  
  (1) an analysis of the process and methodology used by the Texas Department of
  
  Transportation or toll project entity for selecting and implementing sound mitigation
  
  measures, including factors that affect the process and how outcomes are determined;
  
  (2) an analysis of whether any kind of live testing is conducted at any point to determine the
  
  actual traffic noise level for neighboring properties;
  
  (3) an evaluation of the effectiveness of the process and methodology described by
  
  Subdivision (1) of this subsection in reducing the traffic noise level for neighboring
  
  properties; and
  
  (4) an evaluation of the effectiveness of implemented sound mitigation measures in reducing
  
  the traffic noise level for neighboring properties.
  
  TTI researchers pursued answers to these requirements through three major approaches. First,
  
  researchers conducted a thorough literature review on federal and Texas noise guidelines,
  
  comparing them against five peer state departments of transportation in California, Illinois,
  
  Florida, New York, and Washington. The literature review also included a state-of-the-practice
  
  review of noise mitigation techniques and a review of selected environmental assessment
  
  documents from 2010 to present that evaluated the estimated costs of noise walls. Second,
  
  researchers conducted interviews with Texas toll authorities that were included in the scope of
  
  HB 790. The interviews addressed a wide range of topics, from planning to design of noise
  
  mitigation measures. Finally, the researchers performed field sound level measurements within
  
  three projects to compare measured sound levels against predicted sound levels.
  
  Acoustics is a technical field. At its foundation is understanding how sound is generated by
  
  frequency and pressure, transmitted through mediums such as air, and perceived by the human
  
  ear. Noise is simply unwanted sound. Sound is measured in decibels (dB). Adjustments are made
  
  to sound measurements to account for high and low frequencies to approximate how an average
  
  person hears sounds. This adjustment is called A-weighting, expressed as dB(A).
  
  The following sections summarize the results of the HB 790 requirements. Detailed discussion is
  
  provided in the body and appendices of this report.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:47d6f15d60c7721a7dbe36224006acd44715bfe63a6e339db21ef80f5d5c506cfe6af70d089889339954b021c69de98ea68f951de83c56a581b99c3ce75f7649
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/32697/dot_32697_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 17.28 MB ]