May 2009 – When one of Houston’s largest steel recyclers contacted Sound Fighter® Systems about building a sound wall around their Houston plant, the Sound Fighter® team jumped at the opportunity. “Of all the different sound walls we have designed over the past 40+ years, we had never built one for a recycling plant.” notes Sound Fighter® President Patrick Harrison. “And in one fell swoop, we remedied that by building one of the largest sound walls in the country, for one of the largest recycling companies in the world!”
Located near the Houston Ship Channel in southeast Houston, CFF’s steel recycling plant is one of the largest in the region. The plant is flanked on the east side by the Houston Ship Channel, where noise is not an issue. On the west side, however, lies a densely-populated neighborhood only 300 feet away. Given the nature of the recycling process and the fact that they are recycling scrapped vehicles, noise was an issue to these nearby residents.
“The noise problem was immediately evident once we arrived on site.” notes Sound Fighter® VP Murray Stacy “Trucks coming and going throughout the day, grappling cranes offloading and piling-up scrapped vehicles, and huge grinding machines which reduce them to bits and pieces generated quite a bit of noise. Fortunately, our LSE Absorptive Noise Barrier System was engineered specifically for such applications and we knew it would be a good option here.”
After being selected over numerous international competitors, Sound Fighter® teamed-up with an acoustical engineer to design a massive LSE Absorptive Sound Wall reaching heights to 35’ and running nearly ½ mile between the plant and the adjoining neighborhood. “It’s really quite a sight to see.” adds Harrison about the finished sound wall “This is the tallest wall we have built to date, and engineered for Houston wind loads no less. In addition to the obvious noise benefit, it also created a dust barrier and a nice visual screen for nearby residents.”
