Innovation award winners of John Connell awards announced

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Thu, 25/10/2018 - 10:03

This year’s John Connell Innovation Award winner AECOM utilises powerful sound demonstrations for Stonehenge

AECOM helped Highways England to effectively communicate proposed changes to the landscape around Stonehenge and the A303 to its key stakeholders by creating sophisticated audio simulations. They could simulate the changes in acoustics after building a tunnel to replace a road nearby to reduce traffic congestion, and helped stakeholders to experience the changes in noise and visual impact of traffic for the World Heritage Site (WHS).

Russell Richardson, Honorary Secretary to the Institute of Acoustics, said: “Working on behalf of Highways England, this year’s Innovation Award deservedly goes to AECOM for establishing a new standard of best practice via sound demonstration and visualisation technology on future road schemes. The simulation allows one to instantly experience and understand not just the addition of unwanted noise, but also the reduction and removal of such unwanted sounds. This provides various stakeholders an opportunity to appreciate the value in planned investments.”

In second place the highly commended award went to Temple Group & Flo with its  “Northern Line Extension Auralisation Animations and Community Engagement Programme.”

The Institute of Acoustics (IOA) is the proud sponsor of the John Connell Innovation Awards in 2018, and supported the previous year’s award which went to Brigade Electronics UK.

The John Connell awards http://noiseabatementsociety.com/john-connell-awards/john-connell-awards-2018/, now in their 17th year, are presented by the Noise Abatement Society who work closely with industry, government, local government, NGOs and members of the public to help find pragmatic solutions to every type of noise problem.

Gloria Elliott OBE, Chief Executive, Noise Abatement Society, commented: “Innovation is the bedrock of change and the winners of this year’s John Connell Innovation Award, kindly sponsored by the Institute of Acoustics, have put into practical application good acoustic design and community engagement to achieve sustainable solutions.”