Abstract Manager

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s (MTO) Environmental Guide for Noise (Noise Guide) provides a consistent and transparent framework for assessing noise impacts of provincial transportation projects and sets policy related to noise barriers on private property. This presentation will provide an overview of the Guide, with a focus on the policy challenges related to private noise barriers in increasingly noisy urban environments.

As urban areas intensify and new developments seek quick, easy access to major transportation routes, the planning implications have resulted in increased noise complaints from sensitive receptors. In Ontario, the Environmental Assessment Act requires the province to conduct a noise assessment and mitigate impacts, prior to expanding or building a provincial highway.

But what happens when the community develops around an existing highway? Who is responsible for managing and mitigating transportation related noise?

Using the framework of the MTO Noise Guide, this presentation explores the roles of private developers, municipalities, and the province in approving, building, and maintaining appropriate noise mitigation, and the challenges faced when noise barriers age and require replacement.

Key highlights include:

1. Overview of MTO’s noise assessment process under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act;
2. Evaluation of the roles of private developers, municipalities and the province for mitigating noise, how those roles shift over time, and jurisdictional and policy challenges when individually owned, private noise barriers age.