The combined effects of porous asphalt surfacing and barriers on traffic noise

There is considerable interest in the use of porous asphalt (PA) surfacing on highways since physical and subjective assessments of noise have indicat ed a significant advantage over conventional non-porous surfaces such as ho t rolled asphalt (HRA) used widely for motorway surfacing in the UK. Howeve r, it was not known whether the benefit of the PA surface was affected by t he presence of roadside barriers. Noise predictions have been made using th e Boundary Element Method (BEM) approach to determine the extent to which t he noise reducing benefits of PA could be added to the screening effects of noise barriers in order to obtain the overall reduction in noise levels. ( C) 1998 The Transport Research Laboratory. Published by Elsevier Science Lt d. All rights reserved.