RONALD REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT (DCA) AIRPLANE NOISE ASSESSMENT FINAL REPORT Prepared for: The Government of the District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment Prepared by: CSDA Design Group September 12, 2018 Randy Waldeck, PE 475 Sansome Street, Suite 800 San Francisco, CA 94111 Freytag & Associates Jack Freytag, PE Hughes AV Dennis Hughes DC Government Grant No. 2018-1810-AQD CSDA Project No. 1820.01 SEPTEMBER 2018 DCA Airplane Noise Assessment Final Report – September 2018 DC Government Grant No. 2018-1810-AQD Table of Contents Section Page 1.0 Project Description ............................................................................................................................ 6 2.0 Glossary of Terms .............................................................................................................................. 7 3.0 Historical Air Traffic Control Procedures ........................................................................................ 11 3.1 Background ......................................................................................................................... 11 3.2 Conventional ATC ................................................................................................................ 12 3.3 Area Navigation (RNAV) ...................................................................................................... 13 3.4 Performance-Based Navigation .......................................................................................... 13 3.5 NextGen .............................................................................................................................. 13 4.0 Flight Track History ......................................................................................................................... 15 4.1 Historical Summary ............................................................................................................. 15 4.2 The ATC Procedures ............................................................................................................ 15 4.3 Evolution of Impact on DC .................................................................................................. 21 4.4 The Part 150 Noise Compatibility Study ............................................................................. 21 4.5 Further ATC Routing Changes: LAZIR SID ............................................................................ 24 4.6 Washington DC Metroplex Study (OAPM) .......................................................................... 27 4.7 OAPM SIDs .......................................................................................................................... 28 4.8 RADAR Vectoring ................................................................................................................. 29 4.9 STARs ................................................................................................................................... 29 4.10 Instrument Approach Procedures (IAPs) ........................................................................ 29 4.11 Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) .......................................................................... 29 4.12 TARGETS AEDT Environmental Plug-in Report ................................................................ 29 4.13 Flight Track Comparative Analysis .................................................................................. 30 4.14 RNAV Procedures ............................................................................................................ 32 4.15 P-56 Complex .................................................................................................................. 32 4.16 Operational Demands: DCA, IAD, BWI (Forecast) ........................................................... 33 4.17 Forecast Operations ........................................................................................................ 35 4.18 Arrivals ............................................................................................................................ 38 4.19 Summary and Conclusions .............................................................................................. 41 5.0 DCA Noise Monitoring System Analysis .......................................................................................... 42 5.1 Background ......................................................................................................................... 42 5.2 Regulatory Environment – FAA Order 1050.1E and 10501.F .............................................. 43 5.3 Noise Monitor Operations .................................................................................................. 45 5.4 Analyses Procedures ........................................................................................................... 46 5.5 Results and Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 46 5.6 Calculated Aircraft DNL with and without Community Events ........................................... 47 5.7 Temporal Analysis of NMT Events ...................................................................................... 48 5.8 Results and Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 50 6.0 DCA Noise Measurements and Noise Monitoring Terminals Analysis ........................................... 51 6.1 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 51 6.2 Measurement Description .................................................................................................. 51 6.3 Measurement Locations ..................................................................................................... 52 6.4 Measurement Procedure .................................................................................................... 53 6.5 Data Analysis Methodology ................................................................................................ 53 6.6 Calculation of SEL ................................................................................................................ 54 Page 1 of 150 DCA Airplane Noise Assessment Final Report – September 2018 DC Government Grant No. 2018-1810-AQD 6.7 Calculation of DNL ............................................................................................................... 54 6.8 Supplemental Metrics ......................................................................................................... 54 6.9 Calculation of TA and NA Levels.......................................................................................... 56 6.10 School Performance Analysis .......................................................................................... 56 6.11 Awakening Calculation Methodology ............................................................................. 58 6.12 Measurement Results and Conclusions .......................................................................... 59 6.13 Classroom Noise Analysis ................................................................................................ 72 6.14 Noise Monitoring Terminal Analysis ............................................................................... 75 7.0 Noise Complaint History ................................................................................................................. 81 7.1 Operation of the MWAA Complaint System for DCA.......................................................... 81 7.2 The MWAA Complaint System ............................................................................................ 84 7.3 Complaint Records .............................................................................................................. 84 7.4 Nature of Concerns ............................................................................................................. 84 7.5 Time of Complaints ............................................................................................................. 85 7.6 Complaints and Operations History .................................................................................... 86 7.7 Summary and Conclusions .................................................................................................. 88 8.0 Noise Modeling Analysis ................................................................................................................. 89 8.1 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 89 8.2 Modeling Procedure ........................................................................................................... 89 8.3 Data Output ........................................................................................................................ 90 8.4 Noise Modeling Results ....................................................................................................... 93 8.5 DNL Noise Exposure ............................................................................................................ 96 8.6 Comparison of Modeling results to MWAA Measurement Data ...................................... 107 8.7 TA Level ............................................................................................................................