SOPRANOISE

SOPRANOISE (Securing and Optimizing the Performance of Road trAffic Noise Barriers with New methOds and In-Situ Evaluation) is a two-year project funded in the CEDR transnational road research programme with five partners from Belgium, Austria (AIT- Lead), Germany, and Italy. The project covers the following topics:

• Creating a state-of-the-art database of the acoustic performances of existing noise barriers: This database includes manufactured products and already installed noise barriers and summarizes facts and figures about their acoustic performances in different testing conditions, focusing especially on the differences between the diffuse sound field and direct sound field standardized test methods.
• In-situ acoustic inspection tools to characterize installed noise barriers, an innovative progressive approach using a sequence of in-situ inspections, quick acoustic testing methods and detailed acoustic testing methods. Each of these methods is used to investigate a sample of the length of noise barrier which is selected based on the test results from the preceding less accurate method used on a larger sample of the whole noise barrier.
• The focus of the research is on understanding the possible acoustic consequences of the results of in-situ visual and aural inspections like leakages and gaps and on developing a quick acoustic test method as simplification of the existing detailed methods. The challenge here is to strike the right balance between accuracy and testing capacity while still being able to identify problematic areas.

The research will result in practical guidelines for road authorities on how to use these tools to achieve durable and efficient noise reduction when using noise barriers as noise abatement tool.