Acoustical properties of alternative sleepers: experimental testing

ProRail, the Dutch infrastructure manager , started a project to test alternative, sustainable, sleepers. A test setup was achieved along the line from Zwolle to Heino in the Netherlands, where six test sections were constructed. Two reference sections with standard concrete sleepers and four sections with alternative sleepers. During one day we performed simultaneous sound pass-by measurements at the six test sections. In addition, we measured the rail roughness and the track decay rate of each test section. The results clearly show that an alternative sleeper influences the track decay rate of the track. This difference in track decay rate leads to different pass-by sound levels. This paper shows the results of the experiments