Road traffic is the dominant source of environmental noise and at least 20% of the EU population lives in areas where prolonged exposure to road traffic noise levels causes health hazards.

In the last years several EU co-funded projects, mainly under the LIFE programme, have developed and tested solutions such as asphalts, barriers, and traffic management strategies. However, in most cases only acoustic performances were monitored and only the projects’ implementation, without considering other crucial aspects such as costs, durability, or long-term environmental impact.

LIFE OPTIMUS was developed to overcome these limitations, offering an innovative approach based on multi-criteria analysis (MCDA) that allows for a comprehensive assessment of low-noise pavements. In addition to noise, parameters such as surface characteristics, environmental sustainability, costs and durability will be analysed to support the decisions of road managers in different urban contexts.

The experimental surfaces will also be integrated into the European CNOSSOS-EU model to estimate their long-term acoustic effects. The project will also develop new correction coefficients for sound-absorbing pavements, which are essential for estimating the effectiveness of solutions throughout their life cycle and facilitating their replication in other cities.

The main objectives that the project aims to achieve by 2029 are:

Objective 1: definition, structuring, and population of a general database containing existing and available acoustic and non-acoustic data and parameters, related to:

1. all design solutions studied over the past 20 years at regional (e.g. LEOPOLDO project), national, and European level (LIFE NEREIDE, LIFE MONZA, LIFE EVIA, LIFE SNEAK, LIFE SILENT, etc.);
2. 2. the optimized asphalts developed by the LIFE OPTIMUS project;
3. 3. future monitoring activities on existing pavements and those to be developed in the coming years.

Objective 2: design of 6 types of optimized noise-reducing asphalts for two different vehicular speed scenarios (low – 50 km/h, medium-high – 90-110 km/h), based on the database developed (Objective 1), analyzing the catalogued solutions and identifying the most effective ones for each scenario. Optimization will take into account both acoustic and non-acoustic performance (durability, texture, skid resistance, environmental impacts related to materials and laying techniques, costs, etc.).

Objective 3: implementation of the optimized asphalt types in three demonstration cases located in the cities of Florence (via Ponte alle Mosse), Forlì (a pilot road to be selected among those scheduled for maintenance during the project), and the Province of Bolzano

Objective 4: updating of the CNOSSOS model coefficient set, with reference to the average values of acoustic effectiveness over the pavement’s life cycle (typically 5/10 years), considering the use of noise-reducing asphalts in contexts with different climatic conditions, and taking into account the presence of new types of vehicles (such as electric vehicles) or motorcycles in urbanized contexts.

Objective 5: development of a multi-criteria methodology as a tool to support the choice among different noise-reducing asphalt solutions, taking into account heterogeneous elements. The adoption of this approach derives from an in-depth analysis of the state of the art on the topic of noise pollution from transport infrastructures, at national and European level, with reference to the evaluation of costs and benefits in economic, environmental, social, and health terms. The objective, on a European scale, is to achieve a shared strategy for road traffic noise mitigation among Member States.

Objective 6: active involvement of citizens on issues related to noise and its perception, through the administration of pre-operam and post-operam questionnaires to residents of the demonstration areas, in order to improve health conditions related to noise exposure and demonstrate the potentially extendable benefits of the intervention.

Project start date: 1 June 2025
Duration: 48 months
Project budget: €2,458,823 (60% co-financed by the European Union)

Lead partner: Vie en.ro.se. Ingegneria s.r.l., Contact person: Dr Raffaella Bellomini

Partners: University of Rome La Sapienza (UNIROMA1), Municipality of Florence (FIRENZE), I-POOL s.r.l. (IPOOL), Municipality of Forlì (FORLI), National Research Council (CNR)

Associate partner: Autonomous Province of Bolzano (BOZEN)

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