Last week, Sound Transit sent out a newsletter (sign up for them here) about the I-5 closures necessary to get the ground ready for “the tunnel boring machine that will dig the light rail tunnels between Capitol Hill and downtown Seattle” (this is why the Olive Way off-ramp is closed for a year); about the excavating of the UW station and the mining of 11,400 feet of twin tunnels from the University District to Capitol Hill; and about Sound Transit’s efforts to get a noise variance permit to allow them to make construction noise 24/7 for two years at the Capitol Hill station.
As Sound Transit’s community outreach specialist Jeff Munnoch just explained over the phone, all of the dirt they remove to make the underground tunnel that will go from the Capitol Hill station (at Broadway and John) and down Pine Street to downtown—all that dirt will be hauled out of the earth at the Capitol Hill station. The things that will be making noise 24/7 are “generators and lights and things like that in order to safely operate below ground” and all the trucks that the dirt is going to be loaded into and hauled off the site in. Since I live across the street from the site, I already spend the early part of every day tossing and turning to the sounds of construction noise. But at least it stops at night. I’m trying to imagine the BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-ing of backing-up trucks for the next two years on a continuous loop, and it sort of makes me want to put a bullet in my brain. Then again, between the junkies howling about their problems at 3:00 in the morning (“THE ALIENS! The aliens TOOK MY CHILD!!!”) and that lit-with-nuclear-fuel U.S. Bank sign, it’s not exactly a peaceful corner to begin with.
Still, some neighbors are pissed. One neighbor, Carole Glickfield, sent an email to The Stranger today:
Already Sound Transit’s daytime tunnel and station construction at Broadway East & John has interfered with people’s sleep and peace of mind. I am two blocks from the construction site and have been hugely disturbed by the noise. Now they are proposing to work 24 hours a day. This is inhuman. Neighbors need to let them know that this is not acceptable. Sound Transit is having a meeting on June 17th 6-8 PM at 915 E. Pine, 2nd floor (1/2 block east of Broadway). I hope the meeting will be attended by everyone who objects to this vicious override of people’s right to reside in their own home without relentless, horrible noise 24 hours a day.
I asked Munnoch—whose job is to be Sound Transit’s liaison to the community—if he’s heard many complaints about the proposed around-the-clock noise, and he said, “Not many on the noise, but that’s why we want to hold this upcoming meeting. One of the things on Capitol Hill is it’s already a noisy environment.” That meeting on Wednesday, June 17 is billed as a Capitol Hill Construction Open House, and it’s happening in the Century Ballroom of the Oddfellows building.
I’m not fully against 24/7 construction, considering I’d like to see a light-rail station ASAP and considering there already is ambient noise 24/7 (the Dick’s across the street is open til 2:00 am), but not all noise is equal. My input? For the love of things right and good, disable the BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-ing on backing up trucks. Just cut the cords. No one can fall asleep to that.
The devil is in the details. I’d wait to see what kinds of noise they are talking about, how loud, when, where, and with what strategies for mitigation. Then I could decide whether I thought the noise would be tolerable.
You obviously have never lived in a major city. The reason those cities work is because people agree not to be completely unreasonable to each other. Get this. In most neighborhoods in Manhattan, it’s quiet at night. (Try walking around Greenwich Village late while making a lot of noise. It’s guaranteed you will be screamed at. You should consider yourself lucky if the abuse isn’t worse than that.) On Capitol Hill, even on Broadway, it’s quiet on weeknights and very late on weekends.
Waiving the noise ordinance on this project would not be tolerated in a real city.
After years of heaping scorn on people who show up to testify at community meetings asking for development to be respectful of the neighborhood it occurs in, and labeling all such advocacy NIMBYism, this hypocritical post really takes the cake.
OHMYGAW PEOPLE ARE BEING INCONVENIENCED!
you didn’t seem to worry about that on your little bike mafia run, frizzelle.
Someone please call Christopher a waaaaahmbulance. Urgently.
I ride my bike on the freeway: anyone inconvenienced is a douche.
Construction near my apartment that inconveniences me: other people are douches.
Though you don’t really define “quiet”, I guess we’ll take your word, and your anecdotal evidence, for it, kesh.
Id take construction noise over shitty downtown bongo players anyday. Can we switch places?
Do you know how other cities deal with major construction projects? They get the fuck over it. Seriously… you want a quiet neighborhood, move to green lake. Nothing but sissies in this damn city.