Highway Noise Measurement for Engineering Decisions

Details

• Creators:
  Woods, Donald L. ; Young, Murray F.
• Corporate Creators:
  Texas Transportation Institute. Texas A&M University
• Corporate Contributors:
  Texas Highway Department ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Traffic noise
  • Evaluation
  • Measurement
  • Acoustic measuring instruments
  • Acoustics
  • Graphics
  • Sampling
  • Sound level
  • Sound level meters
• Publication/ Report Number:
  166-2
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Texas ; United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  Texas Transportation Institute. Texas A&M University
• Abstract:
  The problem of providing a practical method for evaluating highway noise using inexpensive equipment and technical personnel already available to a Highway Department has been examined. A periodic sampling procedure has been developed using a hand-held sound level meter set on the "A" weighted network. Recordings of traffic noise were taken at several sites in Houston, Texas. These recordings were played back in the laboratory and plotted on a strip chart plotter. Using these graphical representations of the highway noise, a periodic sampling procedure has been evaluated. This procedure allowed a hand-held sound level meter to be used to measure highway noise values at 15-second intervals for 5 minutes giving a 95 percent probability of the mean value being within +0.5 dBA of the true mean. Using this average value, various percentile values (sound pressure levels exceeded a given percentage of the time) can be estimated.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  2-8-71-166
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/85280/dot_85280_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.03 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c9e0699a5caba9724f149b16a47858f138a5cb4ab4f3b7cb9c7346f098f8acf5a98a2df8133a0a47290358ca60468a53b533f2b18280d73fd1da658fe27502db