Breaking Barriers: Alternative Approaches to Avoiding and Reducing Highway Traffic Noise Impacts
The most common approach that state departments of transportation (DOTs) use to address highway traffic noise impacts is noise barriers—usually noise walls.
The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's
NCHRP Research Report 984: Breaking Barriers:
Alternative Approaches to Avoiding and Reducing Highway Traffic Noise Impacts
presents the results of a review of innovative strategies
to avoid and/or reduce highway noise impacts. A practitioner's handbook to identify which of these innovative strategies may be appropriate for a highway project is also included.
Supplemental to the report are
Appendices A through E, covering terminology, a summary of 14 noise-reducing strategies, and further investigations of low berms, solid safety barriers, and acoustically soft ground;
strategy flowcharts; and a
final presentation.
This Summary Last Modified On: 2/23/2022