Paul R. Donavan
Illingworth & Rodkin, Inc.
505 Petaluma Blvd. South
Petaluma, CA 94952

ABSTRACT

Tire/pavement noise measurements were made on a newly constructed, unopened portion of California SR58 that bypasses the City of Mojave. Initially, three different Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) surface textures were tested including longitudinally tined, burlap drag, and longitudinally broomed. Afterwards, eight sections of the original pavements were ground and/or grooved to various surface texture geometries. Measurements were made using the on-board, sound intensity method and limited passby testing was done for comparative purposes. For initial surfaces, the longitudinal tined surface was found to be about 2 dB higher in level than the other two surfaces. Audible slaps from the concrete joints were isolated in the sound intensity recordings. With the slaps removed, the noise level was 2 to 3 dB lower indicating that almost 50% of the measured, time-averaged, on-board level was due to the slaps. Noise from the slaps was also clearly apparent in the passby data. After the grooving/grinding operations, it was found that application of grooves of varying parameters produced little, if any change, in the noise level over the two base surfaces. Texture grinding, however, produced distinct changes in the noise performance by reducing or eliminating the slaps generated at pavement joints and adding surface roughness.

INCE/USA Subject Classification: 13

Contact Information

Paul R. Donavan
Illingworth & Rodkin, Inc.
505 Petaluma Blvd. South
Petaluma, CA 94952
(707) 766-7700 (voice)
(707) 766-7790 (fax)
pdonavan@illingworthrodkin.com