26 september 2023 – Ljubliana, Slovenia
ENBF successfully organized an half-day informative seminar in Ljubliana (Slovenia) on 26 September. The seminar was hosted by the Slovenian road authorities DRI d.o.o. www.dri.si (DRI Investment Management, Company for Development of Infrastructure Ltd.) in their premises. The webinar allowed a fruitful exchange of information amongst road authorities and noise barriers manufacturers. A special attention was dedicated to the growing topic of sustainability as this parameter will be more and more important in future public tenders. In particular, Giovanni Brero delivered a presentation about durability and sustainability of Noise barriers. After briefly presenting the ENBF (and activities carried on within CEN standardization working groups as well as the noise expert group hosted by the European Commission), he stressed how noise barriers will maintain an important role for noise reduction together with actions taken on the source: – electric mobility is not expected to provide a solution for road traffic noise in extra urban areas; – action on road surface can ensure a moderate noise reduction for many receivers and require a proper maintenance; – Action on the building façade can ensure an high noise reduction but limited to the interior of the houses and for a limited number of receivers. Noise barriers or covering remains then the unique approach in case a significative noise reduction. Mr Brero also suggested that in order to efficiently allocate funds for an effective noise reduction, Road Authorities should focus on black spots and then he briefly presented two research projects funded by the association of road authorities CEDR: Sopranoise (research projects that developed quick inspection in-situ methods) and PROCEEDR project. Proceedr is well placed in the current ongoing attention the whole world is drawing on sustainability since this research project aims at developing tools to help road authorities in applying green public procurement requirements in public tenders for noise and safety barriers. Sustainability is a complex topic as it involves many indicators over different life cycle stages. Implementing sustainability, especially in procurement stages, requires simple tools to ensure fair competition and avoid additional burdens for certifications.
