Catalyst Investment Partners
2024
Sound Measurement • Tonality Assessment • Noise Complaint Investigation • Environmental Noise Assessment
Catalyst Investment Partners owns a 5-acre industrial property in Dundalk, Maryland, leased to ContainerPort Group in 2023 for container-storage operations.
Following recurring noise complaints from nearby Beach Road residents, Apex Acoustics was retained to conduct continuous environmental sound measurements and determine whether elevated noise levels and prominent tones were associated with facility operations.
The facility handled approximately 80–100 container moves per day, generating noise from truck movements, air brakes, and related equipment. Residents expressed particular concern about early-morning and evening activity, as well as changes in noise conditions following the removal of trees along the property boundary.
The assessment required objectively characterizing the facility’s sound environment, comparing measured levels with applicable Maryland limits, and evaluating the presence of prominent discrete tones.
Apex installed calibrated sound-monitoring equipment near the facility’s northern property boundary and collected continuous data for just over 24 hours on January 4–5, 2024.
The measurements captured overall sound levels and frequency data needed to assess tonality. Apex compared average daytime and nighttime sound levels with the Maryland limits applied in the study and evaluated tonality using both Maryland and ISO methodologies.
Daytime Average
Nightime Average
Prominent Tones Identified
Average measured sound levels were approximately 54 dBA during the day and 46 dBA at night, both below the respective Maryland limits applied in the assessment.
The tonality analysis identified no prominent tones in the measured sound.
Importantly, the study also recorded an early-morning hourly level of approximately 57 dBA. Therefore, the average nighttime result should not be interpreted as demonstrating that every individual nighttime hour complied with the applicable limit.
The study provided Catalyst Investment Partners with objective measurement data to help evaluate the neighborhood noise concerns and ultimately reduce trucking noise.
Apex Acoustics provides sound measurement, predictive modeling, impact assessment and mitigation design for industrial, infrastructure, commercial and development projects.