Needed: a solution to the following problem area. We need a hedge or other barrier to block the view & especially noise of a busy road next to our house.

Our house is on a corner lot of a neighborhood and a busy street. This is in the middle of open spaces, few trees anywhere around, lots of sun. Our house is at the top of a berm created to reach the highway, so we also get a lot of wind. The main road is salted when it snows. We have telephone, electric, & cable wires running parallel to the road (above ground), so we're trying to avoid planting anything that will grow into those, or at least place it between the wires and house. However, we only have about 15/20 feet between the shed next to our house and the wires, so there's not a lot of space to work with. The current 6 arborvitaes take up about 20 feet of the 60 we would like to have hedged, leaving 40 left to fill. This is a major thing you see when you approach our house, so it is important for it to be as beautiful as possible year-round. We would like to keep a manicured look, but not too formal.

We would like to plant something evergreen. We were leaning toward using Leyland Cypress and doing 2 informal rows (and removing the current arborvitae), but heard that they don't stand up to wind well. So now I'm thinking about extending the current arborvitae row since they stand up well to wind, but is it possible to plant VERY MUCH YOUNGER trees, trim back the old ones, and have them end up the same height? Also, is the road salt going to cause problems for the arborvitaes (3 have died in the past, I'm not sure why)?

The hedge sight will be on the North side of the house, but it gets full sun all day anyway.

Also, any thoughts on the suitability of Eastern Red Cedar?

Do you think I could somehow incorporate the 6 existing hedge-planted arborvitae into some sort of mixed informal hedge, with various types of evergreens, and perhaps also some lower rhodedendrons and hollies? Or would that look incongrous?

Does anyone else have any suggestions? I thought the best idea would be evergreens, but am open to any ideas that will accomplish the goals of noise and sight barrier in an area approximately 60 by 15 feet.

I'm new here - also posted in Landscape Design, before I found this category.