Nine years of dutch experience in the evaluation of vibrations in relation to nuisance

Abstract

In 1993, the first Dutch standard was available to evaluate vibrations in buildings in relation to nuisance. After 9 years of experience with. Dutch regulations about vibration, it is clear that the relation between vibrations and nuisance is very complicated and results in a very different point of view thus resulting in two documents for the evaluation of vibration levels in case of legislation. In 2002, the Dutch have: 1. Guideline B published in 2002 by SBR, which is a revision of Guideline 2 that was published in 1993 by SBR. 2. the Handreiking published by VROM in 1998. However, in both, documents the limits used to prevent or restrict nuisance, differ. Since none of the documents has the status of law and the State Council has approved both, documents to be used for legislation, the Dutch have to make a choice, which differs from, case to case. The intention of the committee in 1993 was to clear up the uncertainty over Dutch vibration evaluation, which resulted in the publication of Guideline 2 (now Guideline B). For the evaluation of vibration caused by traffic or building activities, there is no choice of document. Only Guideline B can be used hence no uncertainty. But when legislation is the issue, there is still a difficulty because two documents with different limits can be used. The committee that revised Guideline 2 has studied the possibilities to bring the new Guideline B and Handreiking closer together. This study has resulted in a change of the limits used in the old Guideline 2. In the new Guideline B it is possible to allow higher limiting values for buildings situated on industrial sites. This way, the point of view of the Handreiking that the location, of a building is important for the chosen limits, is used. However, these higher limits have to be thoroughly evaluated. Nevertheless, the differences in limits between Guideline and Handreiking still, exist in case of legislation. The future is with the judgement of the State council which will determine which standard will finally clarify the issue.