Community noise agreements, monitoring, and control for concerts on Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway

摘要

The Rose Kennedy Greenway is a mile-long series of public parks, gardens, and plazaslocated in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. The Greenway, which sits on land that wasformerly an elevated highway and reclaimed as part of the “Big Dig”, regularly hosts avariety of festivals, performances, and artwork for the enjoyment of the public. However,the parks are located in densely populated neighborhoods and there have been complaintsabout noise from some events. In preparation for a musical concert on Earth Day 2010, theGreenway hired Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) to provide acoustical support services. PBcompleted an ambient noise survey of the concert area, made recommendations to limitcommunity noise from the event, and monitored noise levels for compliance during theconcert. PB also coordinated with the Boston Environmental Department to allow for atemporary exceedance of Boston’s noise code limits during the concert. PB later completeda full ambient noise survey of the parks and developed a computer model to aid theGreenway in evaluating noise issues for future events. In addition to describing theseactivities, the unique challenges of long-term noise monitoring in urban areas will be