Impacts of the shift from distressed pavements to low noise pavements in motorways – a case study in Portugal

Abstract

Road traffic noise is a relevant environmental problem, resulting essentially from the contact mechanisms between tyre and pavement surface. According to the current legislation, noise management actions must primarily intervene at the source. BRISA is employing efforts to determine pavement influence as a parameter of source noise reduction in order to address the well-being of the population surrounding highways and simultaneously comply with European directives regarding Environmental Noise evaluation and management. This Project evaluates the environmental noise effects of replacing a wearing course of Porous and Bituminous Asphalt at end-of-life for a course of SMA12, using two different methodologies for tyre-road noise measurement: the Statistical Pass-By method and the Close Proximity method.