European legislation

Legislative Decree No. 194 of 19 August 2005 (implementation of European Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2002), defines a common approach to avoid, prevent or reduce, on a prioritised basis, the harmful effects of exposure to environmental noise.

The approach is based on determination of the noise through noise mapping by methods of assessment common to all Member States, on informing the public and on the implementing action plans. In years to come, this directive will provide the basis for developing Community measures relating to the major sources of noise.

The directive also requires that information to the public be provided by means of "maps", which represent both the current state of the environment (Noise Mapping) and the expected state following any mitigating actions of the five-year period to come (Action Plans) and finally, the efficacy of the envisaged improvement actions. 

Autostrade per l'Italia Obligations

In accordance with the five-year deadlines indicated by European Directive 2002/49/EC and with the national implementation thereof, Autostrade per l'Italia has drawn up five-year updates in respect of:

• "Noise Mapping", representing noise levels according to specific indicators that are useful for assessing the exposure generated by a highway source;
• "Action Plans", which aim to manage noise pollution issues and the effects thereof, fully incorporating the Noise Containment and Abatement Plan and the noise mitigation interventions envisaged for the stretches undergoing expansion. 

On 10 May 2018, Autostrade per l'Italia published the updated Noise Map and Action Plans on its corporate website so that the general public can review them and submit their comments, opinions and responses in writing within 45 days of the date of publication.

Autostrade per l'Italia took these comments into account when drawing up the definitive Action Plans, published on this website, adopted and issued to the competent authorities before 18 July 2018 for the five-year update.

This data will be available on the Autostrade per l'Italia website until the next updates are made to the Action Plans, expected in the first half of 2023.

The "noise mapping" and "action plan" results are not directly comparable with the "locating critical areas" and "noise containment and abatement plan" results: indeed, European legislation has introduced new noise descriptors (Lden parameter) for assessing noise, and different guidelines on how to represent the noise levels were provided (fixed height of 4 metres from the ground instead of at the most critical point, and different calculation methods, namely the French NMPB-Routes-96 model).

For more information on the calculation model used and in line with the requirements of art. 3, paragraph 5, and annex 4 point 6.e of Legislative Decree 194 of 19/08/2005, reference should be made to the Technical Report on the Noise Mapping study, to the Technical Report and to the Non-Technical Report annexed to the Action Plan.

These documents were produced in accordance with the updated Ministerial guidelines.