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Department Approval �-. I tem Descri pti on: BACKGROUND l�'�, Jy REQUEST FOR COUNCI L ACTI ON Date: 02/08/10 Item No.: 13.a Ci ty M anager A pproval D i scussi on of N oi se Wal I A I ong H i ghway 36 as a part of the Ri ce Stre� I nterchange Proj ect At the January 25, 2010 mee�i ng, the Ci ty Counci I recei ved a p�i ti on f rom some of the resi dents i n the nei ghborhood di rectl y north of H i ghway 36 and west of Ri ce Stree� requesti ng that they reconsi der thei r support for the constructi on of a noi se wal I on the north si de of H i ghway 36 b�ween Ri ce Street and Western Avenue. Speci f i cal I y, they requested that the wal I be el i mi nated b�ween M ari on Stre� and Western Avenue. The deci si on to support the constructi on of thi s noi se wal I was made on June 29, 2009 after the Ci ty Counci I hel d a Publ i c He�ari ng reca vi ng comments f rom the publ i c. Attached are the mi nutes and approved resolution from that meeting. The proposal to bui I d a noi se wal I i s a part of Ramsey County' s pl ans to reconstruct the i nterchange of H i ghway 36 and Ri ce Street. As part of the process and i n accordance wi th state and federal envi ronmental rul es, the County eval uated the i mpacts of hi ghway noi se on the properti es adj acent to thi s corri dor. Attached i s the N oi se A nal ysi s that was compl �ed for thi s proj ect. � Sound has qual itative aspects that can be descri bed with adj ectives, and quantitative aspects that can be - descri bed with measurements. Sound can be perceived as pl�asant or annoyi ng, and as loudness, i n - terms of deci bel s. Changes i n I oudness are descri bed on a I ogari thmi c scal e because the human e�ar can - he�ar such awidevariety of sound levels. The human e�ar can usually tell the differencewhen sound - changes by 3 dBA, and a 5 dBA change is cle�arly noticeable. Becauseof the logarithmic scale, an - i ncr�ase of 10 dBA sounds twi ce as I oud. M ore i nformati on on Acousti cal Properti es, M e�asurement, . Analysisand Regulationof NoiseisavailableintheMPCA publication: "A GuidetoNoiseControl in . Minnesota" at http://www.pca.state.mn.us/publications/p-qen6-01.pdf . Wi th an i mproved i nterchange and background traff i c growth, there wi I I be addi ti onal traff i c travel I i ng . on TH 36 and usi ng the hi ghway ramps. The noi se anal ysi s i ndi cates that hi ghway noi se i n the . northwest quadrant of the i nterchange currently eacceeds the state standards by as much as 5 dB. Si nce . the noi se I evel s exceed state and f ederal noi se standards, a m i ti gati on anal ysi s was compl eted to . d�ermi ne i f ine�asures, such as a noi se wal I, are r�asonabl e and effective i n attenuati ng the noi se at those . I ocati ons. The anal ysi s concl uded that a noi se wal I woul d reduce the noi se f or many of the properti es . b�ween Western and RiceStre� by 5 dB or greater. A cost effectiveness analysiswas been performed . as part of the noise analysis for this project. This noise reduction mee�s M nDOT cost criteria and was . recommended for desi gn and constructi on as a part of thi s proj ect. POLICY OBJECTIVE Page 1 of 2