Anyone who’s ever lived near a busy street or highway can tell you that traffic noise can be a major nuisance. Fortunately, tuning out traffic noise is one of the many hidden benefits pavement has to offer.

Let’s take a look at how pavement can help residents tune out the traffic and reclaim some peace and quiet.

Causes of Traffic Noise

When it comes to the causes behind noisy traffic, there are three main culprits:

1. Volume — It’s a bit of a no brainer, but the most obvious cause of more traffic noise is, well, more traffic. The busier the road, the louder it is.

2. Speed — A somewhat less obvious contributor to traffic noise is traffic speed. When vehicles travel at higher speeds, higher levels of noise are generated as a result.

3. Vehicle Size — Part of the reason highways tend to be noisier than busy city streets is because they are frequented by a larger number of heavy vehicles. Big, heavy, industrial vehicles like semis or dump trucks contribute way more traffic noise than standard passenger vehicles do.
 

How Pavement Helps Turn the Volume Down

Traffic noise mitigation is something that road planning authorities in urban and suburban areas take several measures to try and improve. But, when those efforts aren’t enough on their own, that’s where paving lends a helping hand!

Here are a few of the most effective ways traffic noise can be reduced:

Regulated Vehicle Controls — Vehicles can be regulated in several ways in an effort to reduce the amount of traffic noise they contribute. Designs for a car’s tire treads, engine enclosure, fans, and muffler can all be altered to reduce noise.

Better Land Management — Effective development near busy streets and highways can play an important role in mitigating traffic noise concerns. When new developments are planned, buffering distance — or the amount of space between the homes and the highway — and noise reducing building materials are important factors to consider.

Route Planning — Certain design techniques can be used to reduce traffic noise while new roads are being planned out. Noise reducers like vegetation or barrier walls can be implemented to absorb some of the sound. Traffic routes can also be planned around noise-sensitive areas like schools or residential spaces. Making roads as flat as possible is also a way to limit noise, as flatter roads don’t require vehicles to “rev up” to handle inclines or slopes.

Asphalt Road Designs — Using asphalt pavement for new roads is one of the most effective ways to limit the potential for traffic noise. Dense-graded hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavement is twice as quiet as cement or concrete. Open-graded friction course (OGFC) asphalt mixes can be particularly effective for reducing traffic noise because they are porous. In addition to absorbing more water runoff, porous roads also absorb higher levels of sound.

Rubberized Asphalt Roads — As quiet as asphalt pavement already is, it can be made even quieter and more eco-friendly when it is rubberized. Pavement is rubberized when recycled tires are added to the asphalt mixture. When tested for noise, roads made of rubberized asphalt consistently show a 50%-90% reduction in noise in comparison to other types of pavement.

Rock Road’s Premium Paving Solutions

From governments and city planners to contractors and asphalt mixers, all the stakeholders in a community play an important role in improving our roadways and reducing the impacts of traffic noise on nearby residents. By continuing to improve our route designs and the paving materials we implement for new roads, we can work together to find better ways to make our roadways more practical and peaceful for everyone.

At Rock Road, we’re proud to use premium asphalt aggregates and innovative paving solutions for any and all repairs we make to the roads our communities depend on. And, because we source those materials from our own quarries, we’re able to create custom, top-of-line asphalt mixes and maintain the highest quality standards throughout our entire repair process.

 

Looking for an experienced partner to trust with your next project? Contact our team today and let Rock Road’s paving and infrastructure experts help you get things moving!