Management of Noise barriers in Wallonia

Since 2014, the " Walloon Road Noise Division " has been responsible for the definition of the state of art of the Noise barriers along the roads in Wallonia. After building a database with all their characteristics and locations, a procedure was developed to determine the "health" of each one in order to remove them. The process focuses only on the structural and material aspects of the noise barriers.A final list of the most current defects was defined for each part of the barrier and also its environment. Using an illustrated catalogue of these and the list the both sides of the noise barriers are inspected and the defects located. After that all these information are compiled in a report to the road manager offering him an interactive overview of the barrier.In order to characterize all the barriers in a common way a "health indicator" is given to each barrier. Combining this analysis with other criteria in order to characterize a project the Walloon Administration is able to prioritize the investments to restore the devices along its roads for the next years.