Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Highway 85 is being studied by noise-reduction consultants and Caltrans to try to find ways to make the stretch of freeway quieter.

Caltrans and consultant firm conduct tests on Highway 85

By Sarah Lombardo

A report studying noise levels on Highway 85, and possible ways to abate them, is in the works by a noise-reduction consultant firm retained by Caltrans. Acentech, based in Thousand Oaks and Cambridge, Mass., hopes to have a draft report of its findings to Caltrans and the Freeway Noise Abatement Committee by the end of the month.

Caltrans is paying for the tests, estimated to cost $105,000, after agreeing in March 1996 to investigate methods for quieting the highway. The report is expected to include a number of suggestions, or a combination of methods, to reduce noise levels. But first, Caltrans said, it has to be determined if a significant reduction is possible.

"We went out and did some measurements for the purpose of calibrating whether reflections off opposite [sound] walls are causing a problem and also to determine whether the walls need to be heightened," Ray Nugent, director of Acentech, said.

Measurements taken in late July at about 10 different locations along the freeway will be used to make mathematical models of the conditions along the freeway and determine which methods, from sound-absorption materials on the sound walls to repaving the freeway to a combination of 11 different methods identified by Acentech, would be best for the project.

To assist with its work, Acentech has enlisted the help of William Bolby of Vanderbilt University, a leading specialist in noise reduction.

Nugent said it's too early to tell how much reduction can be attained in all areas bordering the freeway, but said his firm hopes to attain at least a five-decibel reduction in noise.

Victor Zeuzem, branch chief of environmental engineering for Caltrans, said that in most cases Caltrans only considers noise-abatement methods that achieve at minimum a five-decibel reduction because that is most often considered the least difference in noise able to be detected by the human ear.

The report is bound to be music to the ears of some Saratoga residents, who have been complaining about noise on Highway 85 since it opened in October 1994.

Some residents neighboring the freeway formed the Freeway Noise Abatement Committee and appealed to Caltrans for help, but Caltrans asserted that the freeway was not excessively noisy. In April 1995, the FNAC filed a claim with the Government Claims Division of the State Board of Control requesting funding for abatement measures, but the state denied the claim. The committee then went to the city councils of Saratoga and Cupertino for assistance, and, finally, to Assemblyman Jim Cunneen. The committee estimates that about 4,000 homes are affected by Highway 85 noise.

But when the report does come back, one question will still remain.

"The next question comes up, who will pay for all this?" George Korbay, committee co-chairman, said. "That's an open issue that hasn't really been addressed."

Korbay said that the committee still maintains that Caltrans should be responsible for the costs of quieting the freeway, but Caltrans disagrees.

"We feel that the work that has been done on Route 85 met and exceeded all of the requirements that we follow," Zeuzem said.

But Zeuzem also said he didn't want to second-guess the work of Acentech. "It remains to be seen if a significant reduction should have been, could have been or can be reached by alternative measures," he said.

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