Low noise pavement development for severe climate conditions

In recent years, increasing road transport noise problem in Lithuania has gained significant attention and induced development of low noise pavements for severe climate countries. Large research programme was initiated with the main purpose to develop low noise asphalt mixtures that considerably reduce road transport noise and are resistant to a large number of frost-thaw cycles in winter. Several AC and SMA mixtures were optimised for tyre/road noise reduction and tested in laboratory together with traditional asphalt mixtures and porous asphalt mixture to compare mixtures’ performance in terms of noise reduction, mechanical stability and sensitivity to severe climate conditions. After positive and promising results, test road of noise reducing asphalt mixtures was built on operating highway for further research. Paper presents test road, which consists of 9 different short sections built of low noise and traditional asphalt mixtures. Paper describes research and testing plan of low noise pavement properties under real climate and traffic conditions. Results analysis of measured noise reduction properties after first half year of test road exploitation showed that depending on the mixture type, vehicle speed and mounted tyres, optimised low noise SMA mixtures reduce noise 3-5 dBA comparing with traditional asphalt mixtures.