In its eternal search for peace with the neighbors, the Texas Dept. of Transportation is trying a new approach to noise abatement alongside Interstate 30, the Tom Landry Highway, just west of downtown Dallas. Large, acrylic panels have been installed on the south side of the freeway to contain at least some of the noise created by the thousands of vehicles that roll through that corridor every day.
The panels are transparent, so residents of north Oak Cliff can see the cars, trucks and motorcycles passing by. Theoretically, some of the racket created by all that traffic should be dampened. But at what price?
I noticed the panels being installed one morning before sunrise as I headed east on I-30 toward downtown Dallas. I remember that because I was startled to see headlights coming right at me! Or at least, so it seemed. Unlike the old-school concrete noise barriers, the new panels are reflective — highly reflective — and so eastbound motorists are hit with the glare of their own headlights and those of their fellow east-bounders as they round the bend approaching Beckley Avenue.
Depending upon the success of the Dallas experiment TXDoT is now considering where else in the state those new acrylic barriers (which look, by the way, like they came from the edge of a hockey rink) might be deployed. The one suggestion I would have as a driver who’s experienced the noise walls first hand, is to cut down on their reflectivity and spare passing motorists from a potentially dangerous distraction.
Jim Ryan