Skip to main content

Design contract awarded for M40 noise barriers

A new milestone in a project to develop innovative ways of reducing noise along the M40 has been reached, with the award of a design contract worth up to US$3 million. The contract will see WSP Parsons Brinkerhoff review sites along the M40 between junctions 3 and 8, which have been identified as areas where road noise is a particular issue and help decide where the barriers would be of benefit. Earlier this year, Highways England, working in partnership with the M40 Chiltern Environmental Group, (M40
November 17, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
A new milestone in a project to develop innovative ways of reducing noise along the M40 has been reached, with the award of a design contract worth up to US$3 million.

The contract will see WSP 4089 Parsons Brinkerhoff review sites along the M40 between junctions 3 and 8, which have been identified as areas where road noise is a particular issue and help decide where the barriers would be of benefit.

Earlier this year, 8101 Highways England, working in partnership with the M40 Chiltern Environmental Group, (M40 CEG) Wycombe District Council and South Oxfordshire District Council, ran a competition to develop a range of cost-effective barriers to reduce noise.

Potential designs include using solar panels in the barriers to produce clean energy to help offset their installation and operating costs.

Six entries were shortlisted and WSP Parsons Brinkerhoff will now work with the designers of the shortlisted entries to trial these noise barriers at the identified sites on the M40. These designs may also be installed on other parts of England’s strategic road network in the future.
 
Subject to the successful completion of the site review and development of design solutions for each site identified, Highways England will aim to start preparatory work for construction on site in winter 2016-17. This trial is entirely funded by Highways England and the construction phase of the project is subject to funding.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cost-effective alternatives to traditional loops
    February 1, 2012
    Traffic signal control is a mainstay of urban congestion management. Despite advances in vehicle detection sensors, inductive loops, which operate by using a magnetic field to detect the metal components in vehicles, are still the most common enabler for intelligent signalised junctions.
  • Funding shortfall for US Interstate upgrades
    May 11, 2012
    Andrew Bardin Williams investigates tolling on the federal Interstate system as maintenance and upgrade requirements increasingly outpace funding The I-95 corridor through North Carolina is one of the most heavy trafficked interstates in the US, seeing upwards of 46,000 vehicles per day in some stretches-and North Carolina’s Department of Transportation (NCDOT) estimates this number will to rise to 98,000 vehicles per day by 2040. Along with the rest of the federal interstate system, the North Carolina str
  • Rapid growth of bus rapid transit schemes on US Pacific coast
    January 27, 2012
    This section pulls together all the multi-modal topics in each issue. Subject matter will include smartcards; ticketing and payment systems; passenger information systems; fleet management for buses, trains and light rail; park and ride systems; on-line access to real-time information via Internet portals
  • Government publishes programme of upgrades to major roads and motorways
    June 30, 2017
    The UK government has unveiled a US$8 billion (£6.1 billion) programme of road improvements as part of its US$30 billion (£23 billion) upgrade to the road network in England.