Page 23 - Volume 8, Issue 1 Winter 2013

ensuring that the test site has sufficient space for meeting the test site requirement of having no noise reflective planes within 200 feet and being able to carry out tests without caus- ing noise pollution from the sounding of the horns to the neighbors of the test site. There were also logistical problems of moving locomotives to the test site from branches on which different propulsion methods are used.
At the railroad’s request, an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Noise Committee working group developed an ex-situ standard for testing the horns in a hemi- anechoic chamber. After the working group completed its work and the ANSI Noise Standards Group approved the standard, the standard was published. The railroad then
requested a waiver to test under the new standard, which FRA granted. As a result, the railroad can test its horns in an efficient manner that will ensure that horns emit a signal of sufficient intensity to warn the public and without the test polluting the environment.
At DOT, there is a strong participation in the voluntary consensus standards process. In 1996, the year the Act was signed into law, DOT issued 110 government-unique stan- dards. In 2009, the number of DOT regulations referencing government unique-standards was only eight. DOT is a strong participant in consensus standards working groups— its employees were represented on 50 standards-developing organizations and 238 committees in 2009.AT
Arnold G. Konheim is the Senior Advisor for Science and Health in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation. He holds master’s degrees in physics and in administration. Among his duties, he coordinates the acoustics program of the Department of Transportation. His past employment includes heading the environmental and energy programs of the Civil Aeronautics Board and prior to that, working on the development of noise regulations and technical assistance programs at the Office of Noise Abatement and Control of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
22 Acoustics Today, January 2012