| Summary: | Noise emission levels from construction equipment are an important factor in the determination of the level of noise exposure of construction workers and the neighbourhood. This paper presents: (1) an investigation of the noise emission levels generated from typical earthwork construction equipment, that is, excavators and compactors; (2) a comparison between the noise emission level obtained from local equipment and the noise emission level given by the United Kingdom standard BS5228:2009. Noise emission levels of 50 excavators and 25 compactors with various power levels and ages were obtained from on-site measurements. About 74% and 48% of the excavators measured in this study were shown to have noise emission levels below the limits specified by the Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia and European Directive 2005/88/EC respectively, while 52% of compactors achieved levels below the EC limits. There is also a strong relationship between the mean sound pressure level and the age factor but an insignificant relationship with increases in net installed power. A comparison of measured data with BS5228 data indicated that statistically only new data in BS5228:2009 have insignificant differences from measured data. With these results new data in BS5228:2009 can be used with confidence by environmental impact assessment (EIA) practitioners during the prediction of noise at the planning stage.
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