AUSTIN, TX, November 29, 2012—The transportation industry is moving forward with efforts to adopt a set of newly updated pavement noise evaluation standards into regular practice. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently released updates to Provisional Standards TP 76, 98, and 99. These standards—newly available to the public—refine technologies and methods used to measure pavement’s influence on vehicle and traffic noise.

This update recently prompted a Transportation Research Board (TRB) webinar for those invested in designing, building, and maintaining quieter pavements. Over 100 people attended “Quieter Pavements: Measurements and Applications,” a late October webinar developed by TRB’s Standing Committee ADC40 on Transportation-Related Noise and Vibration.

Webinar attendees—professionals from state DOTs, FHWA, and various organizations—learned the fundamentals of traffic, vehicle, and tire-pavement noise, and methods for measuring pavements’ influence on noise levels. TRB’s presenters—Paul Donavan of Illingworth & Rodkin, Inc., Judy Rochat of USDOT’s Volpe Center, and Dana Lodico of Lodico Acoustics LLC—emphasized TP 76, 98, and 99’s improvements to standard practice, demonstrating how the updated information may be used to quantify the performance of quieter pavements.

Continued policy changes are certain as quieter pavements become increasingly utilized—the industry’s understanding of road noise is expected to continue developing with ongoing research.

Those who were unable to attend TRB’s webinar but would like to request a recording may do so through TRB’s website, http://www.TRB.org.

For more information about updates to Provisional Standards TP 76, 98, and 99, please visit AASHTO’s website, http://www.Transportation.org.

About The Transtec Group: The Transtec Group is a pavement engineering firm that delivers exceptional engineering in pavement design, design/build, P3, research, pavement surfaces testing, pavement software development, and technology implementation.  Transtec engineers pavements that reduce cost, accelerate schedules, and protect clients from risk.  The firm has completed over 600 projects worth more than $20 billion on five continents and is a minority-owned small business based in Austin, Texas.  For more information, please visit www.TheTranstecGroup.com.