Effectiveness of the floating slab track system constructed at Konya Light Rail

Ground-borne vibrations and noise, originated at the train/tram wheel-rail interface and transmitted through the rails to the ground, may cause significant disturbance to people passing by or residing alongside the railways. This paper presents a case study on the evaluation of the effectiveness for mitigating ground-borne vibration and noise by floating slab track system (FST). The underpass located at a major road junction in front of Konya Metropolitan Municipality building serves to thousands of people every day. The Konya Light Rail makes a curb right on top of the underpass, which generates considerable amount of noise and vibration to the environment. In this study, the noise and vibration acceleration measurements were taken before and after the FST system installment in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the isolation work. The collected acceleration data were analyzed and the resulting vibration velocity levels were compared. It was found that the vibrations and the ground-borne noise due to the passage of the trams were reduced considerably. The FST system was found to be quite successful in absorbing the vibrations. A noise level reduction up to 26 dBA was measured after replacing the old rail system with FST.