Studies of the effect of aging of ‘‘quiet’’ pavements on tire/pavement noise

One of the issues with using quieter pavements to abate traffic noise is their continued acoustic performance over the life cycle of the surface. Aging effects can be assessed in two manners: (1) long term monitoring of the noise performance of an individual section of roadway; (2) measurement of multiple sections of pavement of the same construction, but different ages. Long term monitoring of Interstate 80 near Davis (I‐80 Davis) began in 1998, just prior to the placement of a dense graded leveling course and open graded asphalt overlay. The pavement surface is now approaching 7 years old and continues to show a traffic noise reduction of about 5 dBA over the existing condition. As support of the Arizona Quiet Pavement Program (QPPP), similarly constructed sections of asphalt rubber friction course (ARFC) on Arizona’s interstate highways were measured for tire/pavement performance using the close proximity (CPX) method and the on‐board sound intensity method. The construction dates for the pavements ranged from 1988 to 1999. The total range in noise level was 7 dB with some indication of degrading performance with age.