Rail noise and vibration services offered by GHD include measurement, analysis and assessment of noise and vibration for a variety of areas including environmental assessment, design, and testing, commissioning and occupational applications.
To address the complex and data-intensive nature of rail noise and vibration studies GHD has developed a number of tools and processes. This enables our team to develop rail noise models in SoundPLAN and CadnaA software based on statistically robust sample sizes from real-world site-specific monitoring.
With in-house GIS specialists, GHD can combine spatial information, 3D design models, aerial imagery and building footprints with noise or vibration prediction model results to produce clear and accurate maps in web-accessible or legacy formats for internal or public consumption.
Rail Infrastructure (freight and passenger heavy rail and passenger light rail)
Globally, transportation noise is recognised as one of the most significant contributors to overall environmental noise and associated adverse community health impacts. Railways offer significant improvements in broader environmental outcomes compared to other forms of transportation for passenger travel and freight, however the impacts from noise and/or vibration are often high in close proximity to the rail corridor.
Urban planning and corridor selection can help to minimise rail noise and vibration impacts at the concept or planning stage. Once the route is selected, noise and vibration mitigating elements can be incorporated into the design to achieve the desired performance objectives.
Identification of noise or vibration issues on an existing rail network may also drive the review and potential implementation of mitigation measures.
GHD has experience in all phases of rail projects, including:
- Curvature and rail squeal assessment.
- Initial concept development, planning and business case.
- Route development and options assessment.
- Detailed design and third party review.
- Construction phase monitoring and support.
- Post-construction verification and testing.
- Ad-hoc and routine noise and vibration studies at a local or network extent.
- Reporting and consultation with relevant jurisdictional authorities and stakeholders.
- Integrated acoustic engineering design of station buildings, platforms and transport hubs including HVAC, public address system intelligibility, user comfort and environmental noise considerations.
Developments near rail infrastructure
GHD also has extensive experience in assessment of rail noise and vibration impacts on developments near to the rail corridor including:
- Concept level assessment for land-use developments.
- Assessment to support planning and council approvals.
- Monitoring of existing noise and vibration levels.
- Design recommendations and development of mitigation measures to achieve noise and vibration objectives.
Rail vehicles (heavy rail and light rail)
GHD has experience with design, testing and commissioning for rail vehicles and associated infrastructure including:
- Rail vehicles integrated acoustic engineering for noise mitigation of equipment.
- Communications design including crew cabin alarms systems, public address announcements and speaker placement.
- HVAC noise mitigation design.
- Brake system noise mitigation design.
- Horn system design.
- Rail vehicle stationary and dynamic noise emission testing.
- Rail vehicle ground vibration testing.
- Crew and passenger whole body vibration testing.
- Communications sound level testing.