Project Number:

3472

Hartwell Farms HUD Compliance Test

SERVICE:

HUD Sound Compliance Study

DESCRIPTION:

Pulte Homes of New England, LLC wanted to build condominiums adjacent to Hanscom Air Field at their 'Hartwell Farms' site. Because this was a public-funded project, they needed a sound compliance study to assess the potential impacts for people living inside the condominiums. 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 weekend period. The results of monitoring revealed that the 24-hour sound level was below 65 Ldn, and thus Tech was able to certify that the project would be in compliance with the HUD noise standards. As a result, Pulte Homes successfully passed the noise compliance hurdle on the way to having their project federally approved.

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Key Points

  • Pulte Homes of New England needed a HUD sound compliance study conducted to confirm that a proposed development of theirs was in accord with HUD noise standards.
  • Tech performed a noise study which confirmed that the proposed site was indeed in compliance with HUD noise standards.