Question No. 10
Speech by the Hon. CHAN Nai-keong, CBE, JP, Secretary for Lands and Works, in answer to question by Dr. the Hon. Kim CHAM, JP, at Legislative Council on 13 March, 1985
Question:
With the construction of elevated roads and flyovers, what considerations have been given to minimize the noise level to residents in nearby buildings?
Sir,
Whenever possible new road alignments are selected
so as to ensure that the roads do not pass close to residential developments. Within the predominantly built up urban areas of Hong Kong, however, the choice of road alignments is severely limited.
The introduction of noise barriers is considered to
be a practical noise abatement measure in some circumstances.
For example, by erecting noise barriers at the edges of an
elevated road, a measure of noise alleviation can be achieved
at floor levels close to the level of the road although the
noise at the higher floors may be increased. In this context, the Highways Office is examining various types of acoustic barriers, especially those recently used in Japan which appear to be relatively inexpensive and visually more acceptable, to see whether they can be applied in Hong Kong.
Other measures include tunnelling or complete enclosure of elevated roads, but these measures are very expensive.
For road surfaces requiring high skid resistance, bituminous friction courses are adopted in preference to
concrete. This surface texture reduces the noise level to some
extent, in the order of 2 to 3 decibels.