Sound and fury follow Crosstown project

Wendy Smith lives a block off Interstate 35W near Minnehaha Creek, where night construction on the Crosstown Commons project has left her shaken -- literally.

"I have woken up and my bed's shaking and I think I must be crazy, " said Smith. The vibration from heavy equipment also sets her wooden window blinds to clattering.

With another 35W project looming in south Minneapolis even as the Commons project grinds on, some city officials are fuming over what they call a breach of faith by state officials in heeding local noise restrictions.

The state instructed its contractor last year to follow noise laws in the Commons project, where construction roars ahead day and night. But when the city tried to enforce its night noise restrictions, the state said that local laws aren't enforceable and claimed the feds agree.

That left City Council Member Scott Benson feeling like the Minnesota Department of Transportation had its fingers crossed behind its back. And it worries Council Member Elizabeth Glidden, whose ward will host the bulk of another MnDOT project next year. That's the installation of a northbound toll-carpool-bus lane, along with noise walls.

Although that project should be less intrusive, Glidden said, "My concern is that MnDOT recognizes that their work impacts people and their lives and their sleep."

In mid-May, Smith awoke at 5 a.m. to what sounded like pile-driving, two hours before city ordinances would allow such work without a special permit. When she called a hot line to complain, she said, she was told there was a permit for the after-hours work but she got no response to her request for a permit number.

Joy Miciano, a subcontractor on the project for public information, said contractor Ames/Lunda/Shafer hasn't driven piles before 7 a.m. or after 6 p.m. without MnDOT approval, except during bridge demolition weekends. Miciano said that residents mistake other activities such as pavement demolition or pulling out sheet piling for pile-driving.

Pile-driving isn't the worst of the night noise for some residents. For Tim Hodapp, who lives across the freeway from Smith, it was the crushing of 35W's pavement by his house. "That was by far the worst," he said. It cracked the plaster in his mantel and damaged the plaster in his neighbor's ceiling enough to expose lath boards, he said.

Some residents say heavy excavation, when trucks carve away the slopes so that retaining and noise walls can installed, bothers them most. The state said such work has to be done at night when traffic is lighter.

"Very predictably for me, it's around nine o'clock at night," said Jeff Brand, who said he watches a convoy of heavy trucks move in on 58th Street. "It's something I've learned to put up with. I just want to get the job done."

Contractors try to go easy

"If they know it's going to be a three-week thing and then the contractor's going to move somewhere else, then it's easier," Barrett said. The project tries to install noise walls as soon as feasible but often must wait for underlying retaining walls to be finished first, he said. White-noise machines have been distributed, and pumping generators have been given added muffling.

The beep-beep backup alarms and the banging of hauling boxes on heavy trucks are often cited among the most intrusive noises. Ames has tried a different frequency for the alarms and has said it will replace drivers who don't use techniques designed to reduce the banging. Ames did not respond to requests for comment.

But the state has resisted the city's requests to give residents occasional nights without construction to let them catch up on sleep, although it did heed for about a week a stop-work order the city issued for noise violations.

Taking nights off would lengthen the project and extend the noise impacts in an area, Barrett said.

The City Council on Friday voted to tell MnDOT that avoiding every-night noise in next year's toll lanes project between 24th and 42nd Streets is "of the utmost importance."