How to Design and Construct Quieter Concrete Pavements

Concrete pavements can be designed and constructed so that the sound generated upon driving them can be as quiet as any other conventional pavement type in use today. The question is how can this be done, and furthermore, done consistently. This paper provides an overview of guidance developed under the Concrete Pavement Surface Characteristics Program titled, How to Reduce Tire-Pavement Noise: Better Practices for Constructing and Texturing Concrete Pavement Surfaces. Constructing a quieter concrete pavement requires the texture to have certain fundamental characteristics, but just as important is an emphasis on uniformity during construction. Furthermore, while there have been innovative equipment and techniques that have shown promise of quieter pavements in the future, it has been found that quieter concrete pavements are routinely built around the world using the same nominal concrete pavement textures in use today, namely diamond grinding, drag, longitudinal tining, transverse tining, and exposed aggregate.