Cadman Plaza West Residents Are Fed Up With Brooklyn Bridge Construction Noise

By on November 8, 2013 8:16 pm in Transportation

A group of Brooklyn Heights residents calling themselves the 140 CPW Peace & Quiet Committee held a press conference today to voice their outrage over noise from the ongoing rehabilitation project on the Brooklyn Bridge. Construction takes place during overnight hours and can be heard in the bedrooms of many of the surrounding buildings.

The noise has been the subject of many comments on BHB as well as a few YouTube videos.


(via News12 Brooklyn)

NY Daily News: “We wouldn’t be here if they would properly mitigate the noise,” said [Dan] Lee, a building board member at 140 Cadman Plaza West. “They keep saying they’ve done things like using lower bit drills and sound sheaths but they really don’t do anything.”

A Department of Transportation spokesman refuted the allegations and said the department is using “the highest performing mitigation techniques available.” The department works with the city’s Department of Environmental Protection to take decibel readings of sound each night, the spokesman said, readings which don’t violate the city’s noise code.

Last month, Roberto Gautier of the 140 CPW Peace & Quiet Committee said this in a letter to the press:

Residents on both ends of the Brooklyn Bridge have been exposed to a badly planned project for over two years. At the last meeting of the Working Group, it was announced that there is no end date for the project. As we all know, traffic flow studies preceded the start of the work and that no human impact studies were done because Contract #6 called for “rehabilitation,” not “new construction.”

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  • Fritz

    Maybe they’d rather have the Bridge fall down, or traffic backed up by working during the day? On the other hand, noise from pneumatic equipment can be quieted by mufflers. You won’t even recognize the sound of a properly muffled jackhammer – ting ting ting.

  • Warren Wilhelm

    Jeez, if the BB crumbles, how will youz Citibike into town? Buy some earplugs and a white noise machine — or move to Montague St., where we deal with garbage trucks nightly and delivery trucks every sunrises. Get over yourselves. (Love the sweater, tho…)

  • Roberto

    I was hoping for serious comments in a warmer vein that indicate caring for those in our community who are experiencing a problem. First, no one wants the Brooklyn Bridge to fall down. Second, the Swedish multinational contractor, Skanska, and its US partner, the Koch brothers, have received a half billion dollar contract to repair the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately, they were not required to study any impact that the after-hours construction waiver has on humans. They only did extensive traffic flow studies. No Environmental Impact Statement was required because the work is classified as “rehabilitation,” not “new construction.” After receiving a waiver of the NYC Noise Code to allow after-hours construction – jackhammering, demolition, beeping alarms, movement of heavy equipment, diesel fumes from generators and particulate matter and dust from the process – the Alternative Noise Mitigation Plan relied on a number of measures that have been acknowledged as insufficient.

    The complaints from residents of 140 Cadman Plaza West are not coming from those in a luxury condo. Its residents include a large percentage of seniors, students, working families and those with physical handicaps. We’ve received support from Councilman Steve Levin, our Congresswoman, our State Senator and others. We’re hoping to receive attention from the new Mayor and new Public Advocate.

    Finally, it should be noted that the night shift begins at 11 pm and goes through 6 am on weekdays, from midnight to 7 am on Saturdays and from midnight to 9 am on Sundays. The project was supposed to be completed in 2014, but was moved to 2015 and is now labeled with an end date unknown. Sleep interruptions of this magnitude need to be addressed seriously and with compassion.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    While your waiting for your local “officials” to help; Try taking a Xanax and a shot of Vodka before bed, you’ll sleep through anything.

  • Roberto

    Being somewhat familiar with the coping mechanisms for stress in our society, I was sure that someone would recommend using drugs and/or alcohol to deal with problems of sleeplessness. I take the suggestion as a remedy offered in good faith. Nevertheless, when public policy is not satisfying, I don’t accept the effectiveness of that route. As we all know, it is all too common to drown our sorrows with booze and sleeping pills. I suggest informed engagement instead of Xanax and nightly shots of vodka.

  • Yo

    How about the clanging predestrian signals? They are making me crazy. Who is getting paid for that horror show?

  • Alec

    it’d be nice to know what the work is that they are doing – i drive over regularly, and besides the paint job, I can’t really tell what they are doing to the bridge – a little transparency and openness between the construction company and the neighborhood would be extremely welcome.

    Also, if they could bang out this work in an uninterrupted week – I would be ok with them closing the bridge in one direction for a whole week – if it would help. (you would have at only be inbound in the AM, and brooklyn bound in the afternoon). It would be a traffic nightmare, but then it’d be over.

  • charlie123

    Does anyone have any updates????