Monitoring of road traffic noise in operating sections of Egnatia Motorway

Abstract

The Egnatia Motorway is the one of the major road construction projects being carried out in Greece and, one of the largest in Europe. It constitutes one of the 14 TENT (Transportation European Network) priority projects and is co-funded by the European Union. It is a 670 km modern motorway which is the communication link spanning Northern Greece from its western to its eastern border. The Egnatia Motorway is one of the first large-scale public works to apply a system of environmental management, that is, a method of organising and implementing environmental protection measures in the design, construction, operation and maintenance stages of the project. Egnatia Odos S.A. is the company ensuring the construction, maintenance and operation of the Egnatia motorway, which in close co-operation with the University of Thessaly - Faculty of Civil Engineering (Transportation sector) has executed since 2007 an extended specialised program throughout the axis of Egnatia Motorway, aiming at the detection of road traffic noise caused by the road circulation. The results of the program were evaluated and used in order to take the necessary measures so as to limit the disturbance of the population caused by noise. The whole program is performed with respect to the European Guideline 2002/49/?U "concerning the evaluation and management of environmental noise" of the Council dated 25.6.2002 and the relevant Greek Joint Ministerial Decision 13586/724 (GG 384 28.3.2006) concerning the "definition of measures, terms and methods of evaluating and managing noise in the environment".