It has been 20 years of incessant noise caused by the traffic of up to ten lanes on the AP-7 highway and the sides of the B-30, very close to the homes. It is the devastating noise pollution suffered by the residents of Mira-sol, in Sant Cugat del Vallès, and which, in a few months, could be reduced thanks to the installation of acoustic screens by the Ministry of Transport. This week, the preliminary tasks of clearing vegetation on different slopes and points of the road will begin in order to move on to assembling the pillars and the screens, in works that will last four months, predictably until December, according to the Ministry’s calendar.
The new screens to reduce sound impact will be located between kilometers 157.2 and 158.2 of the AP-7 and will cover the neighborhoods of Mas Gener and Can Cabassa (Mira-sol), approximately from the section where has the Polis-Alfa urbanization until the exit of the Hospital General de Catalunya. The works will serve to replace and extend the current acoustic screens with the aim of improving their efficiency. New screens will be placed between six and eight meters high, of the plant type or metal panel, depending on the section. Likewise, others will be installed, of the metal type and six meters high, between kilometers 0.6 and 2.3 of the B-30, which will protect the lake area Els Alous, in the municipality of Rubí. These tasks are part of a package of noise protection interventions that will be carried out on four roads in the province of Barcelona and that the ministry has awarded for a global value of 4.9 million euros financed through the Next funds Generation of the European Union.
After years of protests, both the City Council and the neighborhood platforms of Mira-sol have been satisfied with the future installation of the screens and hopes have also been generated for the residents of Valldoreix, affected by similar disturbances. in case there are new ministerial investments. In fact, it is planned that Transports will commission the drafting of two new projects of this nature at the General Hospital of Catalonia and the Asepeyo clinic. At the request of the Consistory, sound measurement studies will also be included to assess the possibility of erecting screens on the section of the B-30 closest to Valldoreix.
Sant Cugat’s Town Planning Councilor, Àngel Pedrós, details that, since 2013, Barcelona City Council and the Provincial Council have carried out “sound immission studies and have repeatedly found that the current concrete acoustic screens and of 4.5 meters in height are clearly ineffective in guaranteeing the maximum compliance of 10 dB(A) – established by current legislation – in the homes of this sector, especially during the night time (from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.) “. All these studies, from 2013 and 2015, as well as a proposal for acoustic screens entrusted to an acoustic engineer in 2016, were presented to Foment “to provide a solution with screens in an easement area where the City Council is not the owner”.
With the new installation, the planned reduction in Mas Gener’s homes will go “from 2dB (A), in those furthest away and with less incidence of road infrastructure noise (Josep Maria de Segarra Street), to 11dB ( A) in the most affected houses on Carrer Guadalajara, with an average of about 8dB (A) in the rest of the houses. Therefore, the reduction will be more than noticeable”, assures the councilor. In this sector, the residents of Carrer Folch i Torres (Polis-Alfa) will also benefit.
During these weeks, the work will basically be done during the day, from eight in the morning to eight in the evening. The first intervention is the leveling of a slope on Carrer Entroncament.
