Atlantic Yards Watch: Construction Alerts did not warn of loud overnight noises

Atlantic Yards Watch follows up on the video posted yesterday about very loud noise at 2 am at the Vanderbilt Yard.

In Noise from nighttime "cutover" of LIRR operations causes consternation for nearby residents, Peter Krashes writes:

24-hour work to move LIRR operations from the southern to the northern half of Vanderbilt Railyards (referred to as the "cutover" in ESDC's Atlantic Yards construction alerts) is causing consternation among residents. AYW has received several complaints about jackhammers, saws, and the persistent beeping of reversing construction vehicles. One resident describes "jackhammering, tons of noise."

The video... is a of a worker using a saw on LIRR's tracks at 2 AM. The filer of the incident report that includes the video has a decibel meter and reports a 120 db level. No steps to attenuate the noise are visible in the video.

The use of noisy equipment like saws and jackhammers is not specified in the most recent construction alert. The alert warns the community about the intermittent use of the LIRR railyard's lights all night, and that from 3:30 PM to 1:00 PM "loud banging noises by dump trucks will occur as they empty their loads of stone in the east yard between Carlton and Vanderbilt Avenues." But it does not describe jackhammering or the use of saws, and the noisy work described ends at 1:00 AM, not the later hours that the incident reports from nearby residents describe.

Indeed, see p. 7 of the Construction Alert, which describes the cutover as taking place over the course of two weekends in the middle of June, with the bulk of the work on one weekend.

Why the rush? They're trying to finish the Carlton Avenue Bridge before the arena opens on September 28, and the cutover is more than two weeks behind originally announced plans.



From the Construction Alert

Note that the description of the cutover describes overnight lights but not noise.

Note that the description of anticipated night and weekend work describes "loud banging noises" as late as 1 am, but, again, not noise at the railyard.