ABSTRACT
When residential areas are close to a tunnel portal, noise, low frequency sound and ground vibration generated by blasting are factors that cause adverse impact to the neighboring environment. Noise can be reduced by using soundproof equipment and the vibration attenuates as the distance between the blasting location and the residential area increases, however the low frequency sound would not attenuate sufficiently even if blocked by soundproof equipment nor with increasing distance between the blasting location and the residential area. In the Minoh tunnel where tunnel portal and the houses are separated by 100 m, hard rocks were found close to the portal location. The result from the analysis of the data measured during the blasting demonstrates that vibration velocity and low frequency sound can be effectively attenuated and rattling of windows in houses due to low frequency sound can also be eliminated by electronic detonators.
