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How You Can Reduce the Noise Reaching Your Farm from the Highway

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Many livestock farmers fear that there is nothing that can be done to reduce the noise coming from a nearby highway. However, such people may not know that precast concrete walls can be designed to reduce the amount of noise that reaches the livestock farms. This article discusses two types of sound walls that can be made from precast concrete. Use this information to decide on the best way to deal with the noise that may be affecting the productivity of your livestock.

Absorptive Walls

Precast concrete walls can be made from a combination of different materials that can absorb the bulk of the noise from the highway near your home. Those noise absorbent materials include lightweight organic materials, such as wood shavings. Mineral wool and recycled rubber can also serve the same purpose. The precast concrete wall surface is lined with porous materials so that the sound waves will easily penetrate the wall. Once the wave enters the wall, the dense absorptive material reduces its magnitude due to the difficulty of getting through the densely packed particles. Consequently, very little of the noise from the highway will exit the wall and reach the ears of the people and livestock on your farm. The downside of this system of sound attenuation is that it may be expensive to fabricate the wall sections. This is because a variety of materials have to be purchased and put into the concrete mix to be used. The advantage of this approach is that it seeks to eliminate the noise generated completely, rather than channeling that noise elsewhere.

Reflective Sound Walls

Reflective walls are designed to block the path of the sound waves generated by the traffic on the highway. That sound is then deflected so that it bounces off the wall before it takes a longer path on its way from the highway. The deflected sound is redirected towards the highway or into the atmosphere by the way that the reflective wall is designed. The thick wall absorbs a small amount of the sound. The remaining sound degrades as it travels towards its source or towards the atmosphere. Consequently, a limited amount of the noise remains to affect those that can still hear it. This type of wall may be less costly to design and install because it does not require as many materials as an absorbent wall. However, reflective walls can create future problems, such as creating excessive noise within the highway once vehicular traffic grows to the level that makes the limited deflected sound to add up to a high level.

Talk to a precast concrete contractor about the options above so that he or she gives you more technical grounds upon which you can make a selection of the best sound attenuation method for your farm.


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