ENAC recently granted accreditation to Acustican to perform two types of tests on acoustic behaviour in direct field conditions of devices such as barriers and acoustic screens, installed on roads. It therefore becomes the first laboratory accredited for this purpose in Spain.

The tests now accredited are aimed to determine the intrinsic characteristics of sound reflection and qualify the behaviour of intrinsic airborne noise insulation in acoustic barriers designed for roads in free-field conditions.

The accreditation for these tests, says Jorge Otero, Acustican's Technical Director, "enables our environment to know that we have a quality assurance system set up by a body of recognized prestige in accordance with the requirements of the standards in force. Although, since Acustican's foundation, we had been working under the quality standards of the international standard UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025 to ensure we correctly apply noise assessment methods and procedures, we did not have any official accreditation to endorse it. Moreover, we have been committed to increasing our portfolio of services in a market that will expand in the medium term”.

Accredited services: supporting the Administration in the noise pollution control field

One of the main objectives of regional, national, and European public policies is to guarantee environmental protection and to safeguard health, with noise pollution being a common enemy. In this sense, the different public administrations responsible for managing road infrastructures need to correctly characterize the installed devices' capacity to attenuate the noise level the population is exposed to.

In Acustican's Technical Director's words, "the administration and planners are generally aware that characterizing noise reducing devices cannot be done in a closed field, because their use is always in the open. Hence the need to do the tests we have been accredited for”.

The ENAC-accredited bodies in the acoustic sector have demonstrated that they have a team with the appropriate technical knowledge and experience and that they have the appropriate means to provide a competent service, through a rigorous, transparent assessment process with full international acceptance: the accreditation process.