Assessment of Highway Noise and Predictive Models along NH-316

Noise pollution has become a major concern of communities living in the vicinity of highways/road corridors, and intersections. The recognition of highway noise, as one of the main sources of environmental pollution led to design models that enable us to predict traffic noise level. Several models have been developed to predict traffic noise along the highways from fundamental variables such as noise descriptors. Experimental data are gathered for seven squares along the National Highway-316 (connecting Bhubaneswar to Jagannath Dham, Puri) in the present study. Noise pollution was analysed in seven different squares (road sections) during morning, afternoon and evening to assess the level of noise pollution along this road. A methodical comparison of simulated and experimental data is made, in order to test the perfection and behaviour of the models in different studied sites in an Indian road condition. Co-relation coefficient is applied to infer the level of significance.