Specialty
Noise / Vibration
SECTOR
Commercial
TYPE
Permitting / Compliance
CLIENTELE
Private Sector
TIMESPAN
2010LOCATION
Amherst, MA
Project Number:
3428Olympia Drive Affordable Housing Project
SERVICE:
HUD Sound Compliance Study
DESCRIPTION:
Tech was retained by Doucet & Associates, Inc. to conduct a sound compliance monitoring study for the Olympia Drive Affordable Housing project. Because this was a public-funded project, they needed a sound compliance study to assess the potential impacts for peopling living inside the project. This investigation was to determine whether their development was in compliance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Site Acceptability Standard for noise. The standard is a Day-Night (Ldn) sound level limit of 65 A-weighted decibels (dBA) with a 10-dB penalty applied during the nighttime hours from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Tech conducted its noise investigations on a continuous 24 hour period, following HUD guidelines. Tech's acoustic engineer setup a high-precision sound analyzer to collect 24-hour measurements over a two-day period. The results of monitoring revealed that the 24-hour sound level was below the HUD standard of 65 Ldn, and thus Tech was able to certify that the project would be in compliance with the HUD noise standards.