SINGAPORE — To reduce the impact of railway noise near residential areas, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be doing a more in-depth noise measurement study.

Announcing this in a press release on Friday (Feb 9) as it gave an update on the progress of the noise barriers programme, the authority said the findings from the study will be used to plan for the appropriate noise mitigation measures in the future.

More than 80 per cent of the 11.5km of noise barriers under Phase 1 of the railway noise barriers programme has been installed along elevated MRT railway tracks, with the remaining works on track for completion this year, said the LTA.

Phase 2 of the programme is ongoing, “with installation works to start in the second half of the year”.

The authority said measurements taken at various residential buildings after the noise barriers were installed had also shown a reduction of at least 5 decibels from passing trains.

“When all the railway noise barriers have been installed, residents living near the aboveground MRT tracks can look forward to an improved living environment with noise levels perceptibly reduced,” said the LTA.

The additional engineering hours allocated to rail engineers and maintenance crew since last December has allowed the installation of the railway noise barriers to gain momentum, as it provided the crew more track access time for maintenance and improvement works, including the installation of noise barriers, said the authority.

The shortened operating hours of the MRT allow for the crew “to achieve much more than they previously could have, under a typical regime of three engineering hours per night”. For example, work that might have taken the team three to four nights could now be completed within a typical weekend of extended engineering hours.

The shortened operating hours of the MRT had been earlier announced to allow for engineering work to be carried out, so as to accelerate the resignalling project on the East-West Line.

The authority also added that it has commenced the installation works for noise barriers at turnout sections of the rail viaducts, starting with the section at Lakeside MRT station.

“These turnout noise barriers have a different design from the plainline noise barriers, to better mitigate the noise profile at these locations,” said the LTA.