More railway noise barriers to be put up at Tampines, Jurong, Toh Guan by LTA

More railway noise barriers will be put up at three other locations to cut out noise from passing trains.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said this follows the successful installation of barriers at Jurong East and Bishan which were near HDB blocks.

LTA said the barriers at these two locations had reduced passing railway noise by at least 5 decibels (dBA).

LTA also announced that it has completed the islandwide noise measurement study which began in September 2011 as part of the plan to address railway noise.

The study covered the entire length of all elevated MRT tracks island-wide, including 455 blocks of flats located close to elevated viaducts or turnouts.

Turnout locations are areas where two separate tracks merge for trains to be diverted from one track to another.

The study has identified a number of locations along the elevated tracks that experience high railway noise levels and will need special attention.

New noise barriers will be installed at Tampines Street 21 (next to Block 269) and Jurong East Street 13 (next to Block 110) will be similar to those installed at Bishan.

As for Toh Guan, LTA will also install a 150m long, 4.5m high noise barrier at the turnout location next to Blk 266 at Toh Guan Road. 

LTA expects passing railway noise to be reduced by 5dBA at the Tampines and Jurong East sites and by 10dBA at the Toh Guan site.

LTA says the installation of noise barriers at the three sites could take between one and one-and-a-half years to complete as the installation work is a complex procedure.

LTA said work can only be done during the narrow window when train services are not operating which is from 0130hrs to 0430hrs. The installation also has to contend with the maintenance requirements by SMRT on the operating network and the on-going resignalling and sleeper replacement projects.

LTA will use the information from the study to look into the appropriate noise mitigation measures and will announce the implementation plan in early 2013.