The coating of a quarter of Walloon roads is far too noisy, according to the first mapping of the network’s acoustic quality that was published by Sudpresse on Monday.
For 74.1% of the network, the levels are considered as “normal,” “quiet” or “very quiet”.
In 2017, the Walloon Region launched a call for projects to measure the acoustic quality of the road network in the south of Belgium. The study which was conducted on all highways between March 2018 and August 2019 has delivered its first results.
They are broadly encouraging, even if only a quarter of the measured network is actually considered to be silent with a traffic noise level of "less than 98 DB".
"The roads are noisy by nature," Minister of Mobility Philippe Henry (Ecolo) said. "When talking about ‘normal,’ we must, therefore, understand normal... for a road."
For the Minister, the results are satisfactory. "But, of course, we must always seek to limit nuisance. Situations in some places remain problematic." The provinces of Liege and Namur record a much higher percentage of roads which are considered to be very noisy: 15% and 12% respectively, whereas it is only 5% in Wallonia.
The Brussels Times
