Solid concrete safety barriers are commonly constructed along highways and in medians to improve highway safety by preventing collisions and providing separation from slopes or adjacent hazards such as deep water. For elevated and at-grade roadways, these shorter barriers have also been shown to provide noticeable reduction of traffic noise. Modeling methods were developed and evaluated for their ability to accurately calculate the performance of short barriers in reducing traffic noise at the roadside. Five modeling methods were selected based on preliminary evaluation. These candidate modeling methods were then compared under numerous theoretical scenarios and validated using five real-world highway scenarios. This paper describes the development of modeling methods to best calculate the insertion loss of solid safety barriers ranging in height from 30-inches to 6-feet and the results of theoretical modeling and real-world validation of the five modeling methods.
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