Sampling techniques for the measurement of noise levels from building construction sites

The Control of Pollution Act gave to local authorities in the UK new powers to control noise from construction sites. These include the possibility of setting noise limits. When monitoring noise emission in order to check compliance with limits, savings in manpower and equipment may be made by using sampling techniques. Two techniques for estimating the measured daily Leq from measurements taken during part of the day were investigated. The first technique involved sampling on a regular basis (e.g., 5 min/h) throughout the whole day while the second technique involved the use of a single continuous sample. The errors associated with the two techniques were determined by measuring the noise from ten building construction sites. At some of the sites measurements were made at different stages in the construction process and this resulted in a total of 21 days of measurement. It was found that by sampling for five minutes in every hour the daily Leq could be estimated within ±2.5 dB(A). To obtain similar accu...