Housing and Noise Regulations in the Netherlands

Narrator: Bikes, bikes, bikes, bikes. The Netherlands is renowned as
Europe’s bike capital. But while bicycle is still triumph from
Dutch roads, the volume of motorized traffic has increased by a
third in the last 10 years. Increased traffic means increased noise, a
problem for building companies which by law have to construct
houses to comply with strict noise regulations.

Ruel Slagter: Our houses must be properly insulated and the regulations are --
that is a certain level of noise and it's not possible to make houses
when the noise level is high.

-- came to me and decided to build these homes because in this
country, we live in a very small country. And we need locations for
housing and near the highways and near the railways, there are a
lot of locations that are suitable for housing.

Erna Schmidt: We bought a house because of the dike at the back of the house.
We like this very much; no windows at the backside of the house
and also the patio, that attracted and also the living room, the size
of the living room and two bedrooms.

Narrator: The Schmidt’s had a few problems there.

Erna Schmidt: The dike doesn’t stay, so when there is a lot of rain and winds, it's
floating away.

Folkert Schmidt: It's floating away.

Narrator: We asked if despite this leakage of the dike, the Schmidt’s would
buy their house again.

Erna Schmidt: Yes, we will buy it again. It's a lot of light and the sun is still
shining in the house and it's quiet here, so yes.

Narrator: The noise wall is so successful that Vilma is catching in and
building a second estate next to one of the busiest motorways in
the Netherlands. The houses and noise barrier are still under
construction. Local competition for the homes has been so great
that 150 people from the community have been fighting for the
chance to move in.

Local restaurant owner Martin Devries was one of the lucky ones.
It's hard to imagine that his restaurant is directly in front of his
home behind the barrier.

Marti Devries: Welcome in Palm Grove Restaurant. This house is a building on
the highway. I bet you don’t believe it, this wall in the other side is
a highway with 86,000 cars a day.

This is the living room and we are very proud of the light in this
house. This roof and on the side makes it a very comfortable
house, also very important that we have lowdown energy.

This is our bedroom and the space is so amazing and nobody
believes that we lay in our heads in the highway.