Enforcement of the EU directive 2002/49/ec regarding road environmental noise in greece the case of "egnatia odos" motorway

Abstract

Egnatia Motorway is a major highway project in Greece, one of the largest in Europe, cofunded by the European Union, completed within the last years, consisting one of the 14 TENT (Transportation European Network) priority projects. It is a 670 km modern motorway ensuring the communication link spanning Northern Greece from its western to its eastern border. For this project according to the 2002/49/EU [1] directive the following tasks needs to be met: a) determination of exposure to environmental noise, through Strategic Noise Mapping (SNM), by methods of assessment common to the Member States; b) information on environmental noise and its effects should be made available to the public; c) adoption of noise action plans (NAP) by the Member States, in order to prevent and reduce environmental noise. At this end, EGNATIA ODOS S.A., in co-operation with the University of Thessaly (Department of Civil Engineers) & TT&E Consultants SA, within the last years, has implemented a comprehensive system of environmental management regarding the evaluation of the road noise & the needed mitigation measures during operation as per the above EU directive. Strategic noise maps (SNM) including noise action plans (NAP) and evaluation of the population's exposure to road traffic noise were executed for all the network sections of < 6.000.000 veh/year in proximity with urban settlements. Furthermore, extended scale noise monitoring program (more than 200 different locations) in independent time periods based on representative meteorological conditions of the northern Greece, were completed in order to calibrate the strategic noise model, and evaluate possible exceeding of the permitted noise limits specifying therefore the need of immediate adequate anti-noise mitigation measures (i.e. road traffic noise barriers). The results of this program and the relevant SNM's are presented in this article along with exposure analysis of the inhabitants of the nearby urban settlements to the noise descriptors Lden & Lnight.