Comparison of predicted and measured noise levels from major infrastructure construction projects

Abstract

Urbanization has led to major infrastructure projects increasingly being constructed within heavily populated residential areas. Prediction and management of noise impacts associated with construction works is an increasingly important consideration during both the planning and delivery phase of projects. However, accurate prediction of construction noise is often challenging, due to the dynamic nature of infrastructure construction sites, with a large number of mobile and intermittent noise sources. Particularly during the planning phase, there is typically a lack of detailed information required to support accurate noise modeling. Noise predictions are nevertheless relied upon to inform the project team and surrounding community of the expected noise impact of upcoming works and to determine the most appropriate mitigation and management measures to adopt. In this paper, we compare noise levels predicted using a variety of common methods, with attended and unattended noise monitoring results obtained on a number of recent projects.