RONDA – Pavement Noise Measurements on Concrete Roads

Road traffic noise affects approximately 8 million people in Australia with 2 million seriously affected, far more than from other forms of transportation. As the principal source of road noise is from the tyre/pavement interface and, given that concrete pavements are preferred by many road authorities due to its hard wearing and low maintenance characteristics, it is important to understand and quantify pavement noise and to catalogue ongoing performance.

A new instrument is now available in Australia for this work comprising a special purpose noise trailer. RONDA (ROad Noise Data Acquirer) is a CPX trailer conforming to the international standard ISO/CD 11819-2 intended for measuring road pavement noise. The trailer is of the open frame type without an enclosure and is the first of its kind in Australia. A description of the design of the trailer is provided together with the results of initial testing on refurbished concrete roads in NSW.