In order to reduce the impact of traffic noise on the suburban infrastructure, noise barriers have been constructed on the russell terrace - jerrang street section of the Western Arterial in Brisbane. This section of the arterial is a new facility constructed through a residential area. This paper presents a brief resume of the department's previous experience with noise barriers, the circumstances leading to the decision to implement these devices on the Western Arterial, the type of barrier used, the design of the barrier (both acoustically and structurally), construction details, and the cost. The results of before and after noise studies are given together with the results of surveys conducted within the community of interest concerning the effectiveness of the barriers. The conclusions from the work indicate that the methods adopted are appropriate (a).