The Waterford County Noise Action Plan 2019-2023 has been published.
This Noise Action Plan is aimed at managing Environmental Noise, as required by the EU Directive 2002/49/EC relating to The Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise (known as the ‘END’) which was transposed by the Environmental Noise Regulations 2018, SI number 549/2018. The aim of the Directive is ‘to define a common approach intended to avoid, prevent or reduce on a prioritised basis the harmful effects, including annoyance, due to exposure to environmental noise’.
The END requires member States to produce strategic noise maps for the main sources of environmental noise i.e. major roads, major railways, etc. Noise Action Plans are required to be produced by the Action Planning Authorities in 2018.
Under the Environmental Noise Regulations 2018, SI number 549/2018 Waterford City and County Councils are the designated body for preparing a plan for roads within the city and county that have traffic levels of more than 3 million vehicles per year.
This applied to certain stretches of the N25, the R448 (Sallypark Road), R675 (Tramore Road), R680 (Cork Road), R683 (Dunmore Road), R686 (Bridge Street and Ashe Road), R709 (Inner Ring Road), R710 (Outer Ring Road) and the R711 (New Ross Road).
The full document can be downloaded below:
