Assessment of noise mitigation approaches along the construction site of a major highway in an urban environment

Environmental noise can affect health. It might be associated with annoyance, sleep disorders, cardiovascular problems and communication problems. So far, few studies have been conducted regarding noise annoyance to large road infrastructure construction sites. In this study, 1,409 residents were interviewed to assess various noise mitigation approaches (temporary noise barriers, wideband backup alarms, online noise monitoring, construction site surveillance, citizens’ committee, etc.) to reduce construction noise annoyance. A multivariate regression analysis showed that 10.8% of the variance of the construction noise annoyance is accounted for by the perception that road traffic management, construction site surveillance and temporary noise barriers effectively reduce noise levels and that watering within the construction site is reducing dust. The perceived efficacy of other aspects such as physical appearance of the temporary noise barriers, actions of the citizens’ committees and use of wideband backup alarms did not significantly predict noise annoyance. Despite this, our results also demonstrate that the perception of efficacy about one specific mitigation measure strongly correlates to the perceived effectiveness of any other mitigation measures. Respondents seem to view mitigation measures as a whole. This study was conducted at the request of the Ministry of Transportation of Quebec and was funded by the Planning and Sustainable Mobility Branch of the Planning and Infrastructure Management Branch Greater Montreal. The Ministry of Transport is not responsible for the accuracy, timeliness and reliability of the content of this article. The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the responsibility of their authors and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Ministry of Transportation of Quebec. The 13th ICBEN Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, 14-17 June 2021