Description
Noise is defined as a loud sound of any sort that is disagreeable or unwanted. Throughout the ages of civilized history, noise has been an annoying irritant to mankind. In recent years the noise level of freeways in urban and suburban areas in the United States has increased perceptibly as freeway traffic has increased and more people are living closer to freeways. To reduce such a noisy irritant generated by traffic on concrete or asphalt pavements
both California and Arizona have employed a 25 mm open graded asphalt-rubber hot mix surface course. This paper reviews the experience in both California and Arizona with using asphalt-rubber hot mix pavements to reduce the noise by 3-12 decibels. These findings have led to Arizona developing a large scale program of covering over 1500 lane kilometers of relatively new concrete with a 25 mm open graded asphalt-rubber hot mix surface course to substantially reduce noise. This program is referred to as the Quiet Pavements program and has been very
successful.
