Management of noise in the case of infrastructure works

The Italian noise legislation is based on the principle of protection of the population exposed to several type of noise sources. The noise exposure, beyond the direct effects on the auditive apparatus, could cause sleep disturbance, speech intelligibility, psycho physiological effects, that generate important state of annoyance. The real goal of the noise legislation is to reduce annoyance. Such legislation, however, is not sufficient for particular type of noise sources, like those generated by infrastructure works. In these cases the law gives authorisation notwithstanding the provisions in force, exceeding the limit values, but without creating damage conditions. The local authorities should then manage these derogations by characterizing the parameters that could be used to take under control the noise, and then to avoid several state of annoyance. The purpose of this study is to take into account the parameters that have been identified and to set up guidelines aimed to establish limit values for derogation for the infrastructure works. The first step will be to distinguish between the different noise produced by different type of infrastructure works. The limit values will then be different for building or street yard and for great infrastructure works such as tunnel or high-speed way construction. The main differences are the plants and the machinery used for the works, but in particular the duration of the work. The limits will then be more rigid for the long time infrastructure works, which are often active also in the night, because of a longer population exposure. These guidelines will be finally discussed with the local authorities in order to manage the noise produced by the temporary infrastructure works and to avoid the worsening of the quality of life.