This paper presents a novel method to determine sound power level(PWL) emitted by a travelling vehicle for road traffic noise simulation. The PWL is evaluated by the equivalent sound pressure level (SPL) measured by close proximity method and the sound power correction factor derived from the maximum SPL measured by pass-by method and the propagation attenuation of vehicle noise during the pass-by measurement. Using the method, we derive the empirical formula for PWL estimation in 1/1-octave and overall frequency bands for 8 vehicles (automobile, SUV, small truck, large bus, trailer, 3 dump trucks) tested at two road surfaces (dense graded asphalt, 30mm transverse tinning concrete) of Korean highway test road. The suggested approach, if securing sufficient data to represent the acoustic characteristics of all vehicle types, has il strong merit to be able to evaluate sound power levels for any combination of vehicle categories and traffic volumes.