Facility and Community Collaboration on Solving a Noise Problem

A major food distribution facility planned to expand their operations at their location in Southborough, Massachusetts. Neighbors were already concerned with noise from idling refrigeration trucks and retained a sound consultant. The facility staff had their sound consultant perform a sound assessment to address the ongoing sound complaints from neighbors. Through the permit review process, facility staff and the neighbors agreed that both sound consultants should work together to further evaluate the sound from the refrigeration trucks. Both consultants jointly performed sound source and neighborhood ambient sound measurements and used the data to calibrate their acoustic models. Each consultant shared their modeling results and sound barrier wall design options. Facility staff shared the sound monitoring and modeling results and sound barrier design options with the Town’s regulatory boards. After the sound barrier was built, both sound consultants performed sound barrier insertion loss measurements and confirmed that the sound attenuation results reasonably matched the modeling results. The neighbors agreed that there was a significant improvement in the overall noise situation. This paper will provide a summation of the collaborative process and results from the sound measurements and modeling analyses.