1Good afternoon.
2I'm Paula Bundell
3and I am giving you the lectures on Environmental Noise this term.
4Today we are going to look into the effects of noise on a planned housing estate
5in a particularly difficult part of the new Manchester Park area.
6This site is not as bad as some I have researched in the past.
7The Blacktown airport is closed from 6 pm to 7 am
8and this is a great advantage to the site.
9The only noise after dark is from the highway
10and the traffic is somewhat reduced between 7.30 pm and 5.30 am.
11So, the people most affected by the noise will be, I expect, housewives.
12By the time most of the students and workers have arrived back home in the evening during the week,
13the noise will have abated to a fairly large extent.
14The weekends are still a problem of course,
15but the traffic is certainly reduced on Saturdays to a large extent
16and even more so on Sundays.
17Of course, modifications to houses will be necessary at a site like this
18and they come at a significant cost to the developer and home buyer.
19The modifications I am about to outline
20will add about $25,000 to the price of a newly-built house.
21That will still mean a cheaper house than in a less noisy and more desirable area.
22A bit of background would not go astray.
23I understand that you are all familiar with the proposed development site at Manchester Park.
24It's a particularly difficult one in terms of noise
25with the highway along the eastern perimeter
26and the Blacktown airport not 3 kilometres away to the north.
27Of course, those nearest the highway will be the worst hit,
28with heavy traffic noise as well as the noise from the light planes overhead.
29As you all know, the normal noise threshold for private housing is 55 decibels.
30At this site the levels have been recorded as high as 67 decibels.
31The construction of the houses has to be somewhat modified from houses in most areas.
32In the houses on the highway and in the noisiest areas of this site
33there will be a need for specialised double glazing
34and special acoustic seals will have to be fitted to the doors.
35All exterior doors in this especially noisy pocket
36will have to be solid core wood doors with hinges.
37Every house built on this site,
38not just those adjacent to the highway or nearest to the airport,
39will require high density insulation materials in the roof.
40Not only will all the roofs need insulating,
41the exterior walls will be required to be double brick.
42All ceilings will require double thickness plaster board to be used in the construction.
43In the noisiest areas, mechanical ventilation will have to be installed in the exterior walls.
44In those areas with sealed windows
45it will be necessary to fit fans with absorbers to cut out the noise in those particular houses.
46Air conditioning units could also be fitted in the ceilings of such houses
47but this is substantially more expensive than fans,
48and may not be needed on this site.
49Coming back now to the double glazing I mentioned before.
50Specialised double glazing requires a larger air gap
51between the inner and outer glass than normal double glazing.
52The gap must be at least 7 centimetres.
53The thickness of the glass is also a factor,
548 millimetres on the outside and 6 on the inside pane.
55It's essential that the glass be thicker on the outside than on the inside
56and that the gap between the panes of glass be a minimum of 7 centimetres.
57Obviously, the noise factor will have to be taken into consideration with the layout of the houses.
58Living areas will have to be designed at the back of the houses away from the highway.
59Bedrooms and living rooms will have to be built towards the back,
60and for those houses closest to the highway
61two layers of plasterboard will be needed for the interior bedroom walls.
62Those rooms constructed at the front of the houses
63should be garages, laundries, kitchens, bathrooms and dining rooms.
64I have come to the conclusion that this development should go ahead,
65but with various acoustic modifications according to the position of the block
66in relation to the highway and intersection.