It has been 20 years of incessant noise caused by traffic of up to ten lanes on the AP-7 motorway and the sides of the B-30, very close to 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 attenuated thanks to the installation of acoustic screens by the Ministry of Transport. This week the previous works of clearing vegetation on different slopes and points of the road begin, to go on to mount the pillars and screens, in works that will last four months, foreseeably until December, according to the ministry's calendar.
The new screens to reduce the 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 the urbanization is located. Polis-Alfa until the exit of the General Hospital. 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, plant type or metal panel depending on the section. Likewise, other metal ones, six meters high, will be installed between kilometers 0.6 and 2.3 of the B-30, which will protect the area of the Els Alous lake, in the municipality of Rubí. These works are part of a package of acoustic 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 Next Generation funds from 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 hope has also been generated for the residents of Valldoreix, affected by similar inconveniences, in case there are new investments ministerial. In fact, Transport is expected to commission the drafting of two new projects of these characteristics at the height of the General Hospital and the Asepeyo Clinic. At the request of the Consistory, sound measurement studies will also be included to assess the possibility of erecting screens in the section of the B-30 closest to Valldoreix.
The Councilor for Town Planning, Àngel Pedrós, details that, since 2013, the Barcelona City Council and the Barcelona Provincial Council have carried out “sound immission studies, repeatedly verifying that the current 4.5-meter-high concrete acoustic screens they are clearly ineffective in guaranteeing compliance with the maximum of ten decibels (dB) established in current legislation in homes in this sector, especially at night (from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.)”. All these studies, from 2013 and 2015, as well as a proposal for acoustic screens commissioned to an acoustic engineer in 2016, were presented to Fomento "to provide a solution with screens in an easement area where the City Council is not the owner."
With the new installation, the expected reduction in the Mas Gener homes will go "from 2dB(A), in the furthest away and with the least incidence of noise from the road infrastructure (Josep Maria de Segarra street), up to 11dB(A). ) in the most affected houses on Guadalajara street, with an average of about 8dB(A) in the rest of the houses. Therefore, the reduction will be more than notable ”, assures the mayor. The residents of Folch i Torres street (Polis-Alfa) will also benefit from this sector.
Throughout these weeks, the work will be carried out basically during the day, from eight in the morning to eight in the afternoon. The first intervention is the clearing of a slope in Entroncament street.
