The purpose of this synthesis is to assess the state of the practice used by state highway agencies related to the design, construction, and maintenance of traffic noise barriers. It was initiated, in part, because nearly a decade has passed since a previous synthesis of practice on noise barriers was published and major changes of many types have occurred. There were four areas of interest in the state-of-the-practice assessment: (1) state highway agency administrative and programmatic issues related to noise abatement; (2) noise barrier design, construction, and maintenance problems, solutions, and needs; (3) other recent noise abatement strategies used by state highway agencies; and (4) traffic noise barrier research. Information was gathered from the literature and from surveys of state and provincial highway agencies. (A)
Abstract