Influence of Environment- and Traffic-related Factors on Acoustical Ageing of Low-noise Road Surfaces in Switzerland
Invited paper
Swiss Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
Tuesday 2 june, 2015, 15:40 - 16:00
0.2 Berlin (90)
Abstract:
Low-noise road surfaces have become a popular and widely used measure in
Switzerland to combat road traffic noise at its source. Altogether, more
than 300
low-noise road surfaces have been constructed in urban areas over the last
decade
on road sections where traffic noise exceeded the legal limits. To determine
their
long-term performance in terms of noise reduction, most of these surfaces
have
been subjected to repeated tyre/road noise measurements.
Such measurements have shown that the loss of acoustic performance over time
can
vary substantially on different road sections. The explanations for this,
however,
remain unclear.
This article aims to shed light on the reasons for differing acoustic ageing
behaviour of low-noise road surfaces by investigating environment- and
traffic-
related factors on the particular road sections. Multivariate regression
analysis
was used on extensive measurement datasets and a wide range of environmental
and
traffic descriptors obtained from spatial analysis. We, further, discuss the
required conditions for application of particular low-noise road surface
types
with respect to local environmental and traffic conditions. We conclude by
proposing an approach to reduce the risk of acoustic performance loss and
failure.