Reducing Traffic Noise on Cement Concrete Pavements

This paper concerns a joint research programme being undertaken by the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales (Australia) and the Cement and Concrete Association of Australia. The objective of the research is to develop quieter concrete road surfaces, whilst maintaining acceptable skid resistance, by modifying the surface texture of concrete pavements. Pavement surface texture is modified by altering the form of the pattern which is impregnated into the mortar of the plastic concrete. The research has involved construction of full scale trial pavements on freeways in the Newcastle environs which were then tested to determine their acoustic and skid resistance properties. The paper presents the results to date of this work with particular emphasis on the traffic noise aspects. It then discusses how, through successive construction and monitoring, the acoustic and skid resistance properties of cement concrete pavements are hoped to be optimised.