Seoul Facilities Corporation Implements 3 Major Measures to Reduce Construction Site Noise... Introduction of Mobile Sound Barriers and Low-Noise Equipment

Installation and Removal of Portable Soundproof Walls Made Easy, Road Pavement Cutters and Lighting Generators Use Low-Noise Models
Pilot Operation Results Show 20-30% Reduction in Construction Site Noise

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul Facilities Corporation, which manages and supervises construction sites commissioned by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, announced on the 19th that it has introduced and begun full-scale implementation of the ‘Three Major Measures to Reduce Construction Site Noise’ to alleviate the inconvenience caused by noise at construction sites to nearby residents.

According to Seoul Facilities Corporation, noise-related complaints at urban construction sites were 8 cases in 2018, 24 cases in 2019, and 27 cases in 2020, indicating that noise-related difficulties are a significant challenge for on-site construction supervisors.

During the construction period, portable tube-type soundproof walls that can be easily installed and dismantled will be set up. Noisy equipment such as road pavement cutters and lighting generators used for nighttime construction will be replaced with low-noise models. The existing ‘pavement breaking’ method, which caused severe noise by drilling concrete, will be changed to a scraping method. Hearing protection equipment will also be provided to construction workers at the sites.

These measures will be expanded and applied to construction sites commissioned by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and supervised by Seoul Facilities Corporation, especially those with frequent noise complaints such as waterworks construction sites or small-scale construction in residential and commercial areas. The three major noise reduction measures are the installation of portable tube-type soundproof walls, introduction of low-noise equipment, and application of low-noise construction methods.

First, the portable tube-type soundproof wall is a sound barrier installed at construction sites to reduce noise. It is easily installed and removed by inflating air into the tubes. After installation, noise levels inside and outside the barrier were compared, showing a significant reduction from 95dB to 74dB.

Noise generated by construction equipment is also reduced by using low-noise equipment. In particular, noisy road pavement cutters and lighting generators used for nighttime construction are replaced with low-noise models. Pilot operation results showed that noise from existing generators (90dB) was reduced to low-noise generators (66dB), and existing pavement cutters (110dB) were reduced to low-noise pavement cutters (86dB).

The so-called ‘pavement breaking’ work, which drills asphalt or concrete floors, will also adopt a low-noise construction method that scrapes the floor instead of breaking it. Pilot operation results showed that the breaking method reached up to 105dB, while the scraping method was only 75dB. For water pipe cutting, a plasma pipe cutting method was introduced, reducing noise by 18dB compared to the existing method.

Along with the three major measures, hearing protection equipment is provided to construction workers. The headphone-type protective gear reduces loud noise at construction sites while allowing communication between workers, thereby improving work efficiency.

Cho Sung-il, Director of Seoul Facilities Corporation, said, “Construction site noise is a major inconvenience that citizens experience in their daily lives, so minimizing it is a very important issue. Especially with more time spent at home due to COVID-19, it was a task that had to be resolved.” He added, “With the introduction of these improvement measures and multifaceted efforts to reduce construction site noise, we will do our best to alleviate citizen inconvenience.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.