POTENTIAL USE OF LOW-NOISE ROAD PAVEMENT IN URBAN ROADS OF TIRANA MUNICIPALITY

Acoustic pollution and vibration is one of the major environmental problems in Albania related to roads and one of the less analyzed during the environmental studies until now. The main responsible of this phenomenon are without reservation industrialization and motorization after the 90’, together with the lack of inadequate protection regulation in our country.The Environmental Protection Act defines limiting noise emissions at source as a basic principle. The following paper presents and proposes the appropriate strategies for the realization of the control and mitigations measures for acoustic pollution in urban roads. Following the actual roads conditions in Albania and monitoring process until now in this paper we propose the following appropriate passive measurement, that’s to say the different manners to limit noise distribution in a given environment. One of the most appropriate traffic noise reduction measures, especially for urban roads, is the use of different low macro-texture bituminous mix road surfaces, such as asphaltic concrete, slurry seal, open graded asphalt and stone mastic asphalt. These pavements are of particular interest for areas with a high population density, as Tirana municipality, which continues to have the greatest shortcomings in terms of noise abatement. Moreover, these are often the only measures which can be taken on roads in urban areas.It was recognized at a very early stage that the quality of a road pavement has a considerable effect on the level of noise emissions due to road traffic. Laying a low-noise road pavement may represent a measure which is both effective and economical for reducing road noise pollution. Indeed, it has no negative impact on the landscape or on constructed sites, or on road safety.