Acoustic amelioration, WTH?

Today I read the fine print in my sales contract and discovered I need some kind of acoustic treatment to the house. This only came about because my builder queried it, as I was in close proximity to a main road.

Now I'm ringing anyone that has been associated with the development to see what I can find.

From what the real estate agent knew, he though the acoustic fence was all the sound treatment that was need to any propsed dwelling built on site.

I got onto a guy at the Department of Main Roads, he sent me the full conditions of development on that site. In a nutshell it must pass noise attenuating conditions spelt out by DMR. With with a traffic project of 10 years, it must be adequate to be inhabitable without disturbing the occupants of the house. I need to involve acoustic engineers to certify the proposed dwelling to see if it passes the design criteria.

I rang a couple of companies and they all asked for an existing noise report, or one had to be developed. According to the development application of the subdivision, there is someone who has one. I just need to track it down. That would save me thousands of dollars. The certification costs a few hundred, but the study costs way more due to equipment hire and data retrieval. I'm doing some more investigation to see who has a copy of the report.

OK a few hours later after ringing developers surveyors and engineers, i was told to contact Brisbane city council. The people working there are so helpful. He found what I was looking for and has emailed me a full copy. After I confirmed I was the owner of the property he didn't hesistate. As I read I found it was 4 years old.

I rang a couple of acoustic engineers that could help and they could make conservative projections from the data already obtained. Still wouldn't be as accurate as if they had to perform a noise report from scratch, but it was something.

Let's see what the outcome is. I would still want to use double glazing on my windows, not only to see what all the fuss is about, but being in close proximity to the road, I think we will need it.