High fence for noise reduction?

[moredogsthansense]

Our house is set back maybe 10 metres or so from a 50 mph road, and one side of our garden runs alongside the road, separated from it by a pavement and a broad ditch with some trees. We are thinking about seeing if we can get planning permission for a 3m high noise reduction fence, as the tyre noise from passing traffic has been an issue when in the garden during lockdown. It wouldn’t block any light to our garden, as it’s on the north side of it, and there are trees on both sides of the current fence. It wouldn’t bother anyone else either, as the trees screen the current fence from the road side, and there is common land rather than housing on the other side of the road.

Would be really grateful if anyone has experience of whether a fence like this has actually reduced road noise for you, or of how likely it is that planning permission would be given? Thank you!

what will it be made of?

Am interested in this but it's also worth looking at what kind of planting you could do (even inside the fence) to reduce noise. Apparently dense trees like Holly are very effective and there is another which reduces pollution (can't remember which but there was some research published about it recently).

@PigletJohn

what will it be made of?

Thanks for your reply - 2 layers of high density wood with noise reduction material between them, apparently.

The sort of thing used for motorway shielding?

There are technical papers on noise shielding, as I recall they are most efficient they closer they are to either the source, or the listener. And it helps to have a leafy hedge as well. You can probably track down a website, it is part of Building Technology curriculum and probably Highway Planning engineers courses.

Avoid any gaps or gateways in the barrier.

Thanks @PigletJohn, that's really helpful. Good point about how close the fence is to either source or listener - this may be an issue because the fence is some metres from the road - there's a strip of common land with a drainage ditch between them. I guess a dark leafy hedge in addition couldn't be a bad thing - at the moment there are a few lacklustre leylandii which aren't going to do much of anything.

I found this

picture