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.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/32697/dot_32697_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 17.28 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:47d6f15d60c7721a7dbe36224006acd44715bfe63a6e339db21ef80f5d5c506cfe6af70d089889339954b021c69de98ea68f951de83c56a581b99c3ce75f7649