Road traffic noise impact in commercial and residental zones of the city of Zagreb

Traffic infrastructure of commercial and residential areas of the wider center of the city of Zagreb, includes according to their traffic and economic function, some significant traffic communications. Both public city and individual traffic and transit cargo, and passenger transport are circulating along these roads. The inhabitants of these areas send very often and in the organized manner the objections to the City Authority due to disturbances caused by increased traffic noise level. For that reason, the Municipal City Construction Office, in cooperation with the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Zagreb University, has initiated the elaboration of the Study on traffic noise impact in the commercial - residential zones of the city of Zagreb. In the first stage, three most threatened sites with frequent and numerous petitions made by the citizens, have been analyzed. This paper gives the presentation of the measured noise levels for daily, evening and night periods on respective sites depending on traffic load and traffic flow structure. Beside the presentation of short-term measuring, here are also the results of continuous measuring of noise level in duration of 24 hours, in order to give for the observed locations a representative picture of periods of continuous exposure to high noise levels. Based on the measuring results, possible measures for reduction of traffic noise level by introducing traffic - technical improvements and application of construction- technical measures, have been proposed, accordingly.