Development of Construction Noise Standards based on Subjective Responses

Annoyance evaluation was conducted on various sources of sounds in construction machinery to improve the construction noise standards, which can reflect the subjective sensory characteristics that individuals can actually experience. A total of 84 sound samples were generated for 12 types of construction machinery, corresponding to different noise-generating equipment, and an auditory experiment was conducted. Based on the annoyance curve derived from this experiment, the percentage of Highly Annoyed(HA %) at a construction noise level of 65 dB(A) is approximately 30 %. By gradually tightening the noise standards to 62 dB(A) and 58 dB(A), the HA % can be reduced to 20 % and 10 %, respectively, aligning with WHO-recommended levels.