Increasing traffic levels and narrow road easements on our arterial roads are causing an increase in traffic noise levels. As a result, noise pollution has become a growing concern for the civil engineer. With environmental factors playing an increasing role in all construction projects, noise engineering is becoming important to the overall success of the project. To minimise this effect noise barriers are now used that reflect, absorb or disperse traffic noise. Like all major arterial roads, when an extension of the Eastern Freeway in the City of Melbourne was constructed in 1997, a comprehensive study was done to investigate the use of such noise attenuation barriers. This paper looks at the types of barriers used, their design, and effectiveness of predicting the noise levels before and after construction.
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