BQE Louder Than Ever in North Heights

By on April 1, 2008 4:03 pm in Brooklyn Heights

 

Several folks have mentioned to us over the last few months that truck noises from the BQE have reached a new level on annoying.  Of course living near a major highway is by its very nature a noisy endeavor but these sounds, according to witnesses, appear to more than just business as usual.

One BHB tipster approached the BHA and received this response from Executive Director Judy Stanton:

George Klein in the NYC Division of Bridges, Maintenance & Operations Bureau Director, said "Judy,  We will take a look at the condition. Hopefully, some improvements can be made." 

Stanton adds that when the problem will be looked into is hard to say.  However she did make it clear that the noise issue appears to be focused around the BQE's Cadman Plaza exit and underneath the Middagh Street overpass (especially its middle lane).

Stanton promises to follow up with the DOT in three weeks.  In the meantime if you're bugged by the roar of the BQE, contact the DOT yourself ASAP. 

Flickr photo by lucius kwok

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  • hi

    This is like saying McDonald’s coffee was hot. TOO hot!

  • Poisson d’Avril

    April Fools?

  • Andrew Porter

    They’ve cut the trees down on the pier. Seems a shame that the first thing thy do to make a Park is to cut all the trees down.

    Meanwhile: THIS JUST IN: Gristede’s is on fire! Lots more on this when someone here notices!

  • Elvis III

    Anybody know where I can find a caricature artist around the area? Cheap and quick hopefully.

  • bornhere

    I grew up on Clark and Willow, and never appreciated the quiet of the area until I moved to Willow Place. My kitchen faced the BQE, and although there was a relentless drone, the noise pales in comparison to what goes on at Henry and Joralemon, where I now live. When I moved here from Willow Place in 1982, it was a stunning experience — subways below and lots of noise from traffic stopping at the lights, radios blaring, engines tooling. But in the past 5 years or so, the noise from trucks rumbling down Henry, especially after midnight, is almost unbelievable. I did contact Judy Stanton, asking if any thought might be given to routing trucks down Court on their way to Atlantic Avenue and the BQE; it wasn’t that much of a “nimby” thing, since I thought there is really less residential space on Court from Pierrepont to Atlantic than on Henry for the same distance. The “solution” was the posting of a “No Trucks Except Local Deliveries” at Cadman Plaza West and Henry. I keep forgetting to notice if that sign is there (it was to be placed in November 2007), but I have noticed that it is no quieter on this corner. The noisiest trucks seem to be the private sanitation trucks, some of which actually turn left onto Joralemon from Henry. And here comes open-window season.

  • DoesntMatter

    What have the right and left lane at the Middagh Street overpass to say that the middle lane is the noisiest? I would assume they could get it under control with some sibgling rivalry.

  • Andrew Porter

    The noise used to be much worse until they repaved the Brooklyn Bridge, which I guess was back in the 1980s. Until then, that high pitched whine from the car tires going over the metal grid embedded on the surface of the concrete on the Bridge was really noticeable. When the Bridge was repaved with, I believe, glassphalt, it cut Way Down on the whine you got from the surface.

    And when they installed doubleglazed windows in my building, I was truly stunned by how much quieter my apt became.