Australian packaging company Pact Group Holdings Ltd. has manufactured 180,446 square feet of lightweight polyethylene panels for noise barriers on a highway upgrade into Sydney.
The sound barrier is along 13 miles of the M5 West Road, part of the key connection that links Sydney with the national capital Canberra. The road opened to traffic in late October and has noise barriers made up of 16,000 panels.
Siobhan McCrory, sales, marketing and innovation GM at Melbourne-based Pact's design division, Inpact Innovation Pty. Ltd., said the rotationally molded PE panels are as effective as concrete sound barriers, but have a longer life of about 40 years.
The 16,000 panels took 10 months to manufacture in a process that took Pact more than five years to develop.
McCrory said the panels have attracted worldwide interest from companies involved in road and rail transport due to their “flexibility in design, low cost of installation and ongoing maintenance, and effective noise reduction.
“The process from design to implementation is very rapid as we [can] progress from design to manufacturing in less than three months using our patented technology. The panels have broader applications in noise reduction in building facades and road bridges.”
McCrory would not reveal manufacturing costs.