Sound barrier wall construction using tire sections

Abstract

A wall-like sound barrier for placement along the shoulders of a highway is formed of a plurality of arcuate tire sections arranged in stacked rows to define a vertically-extending wall of such tire sections. The concave, partly open face of each tire section is oriented in confronting opposition to a source of sound or noise to be damped and reflected, such as a roadway. Each tire section may be inclined so as to encourage runoff of rainwater and the like that could otherwise collect in the interior of the tire section. The inclination may be defined by orienting each tire section so that its convex exterior is elevated above its concave interior, and/or by orienting each tire section so that one of its ends is elevated above the other of its ends. In addition, the tire sections foxing each row may be arranged so that the tire sections are vertically aligned from one row to the next to form columns of tire sections in the resulting wall, or may be staggered from row-to-row so that each tire section lies immediately above portions of two tire sections of the row of tire sections upon which it is stacked.