Late-night construction keeping residents up

We’ve received several emails from Ballardites questioning the late-night/early-morning construction at the project at 15th & Market.

Construction photo sent to us by neighbor Kristin

Some emails have focused on the noise of the heavy equipment, others on the bright lights. “It seems they’re taking a break around 5 [p.m.] and starting up again around 7 [p.m.],” writes Kristin in an email this morning. “It’s 3:40am and they just wrapped up and are no longer working.”

“This seemed to start last week- they worked around the clock, and it was mostly digging and depositing the dirt into a succession of trucks, so it hasn’t been TOO loud… though the trucks themselves are,” she writes. “This week, it’s been more of a case of them seeming to start BACK up around 7, and working until 3am or so.”

Here is the response from Bryan Stevens at the Department of Planning and Development:

While the land use decision on the project at 5501 15th Ave NW placed limits on the hours of construction, it also gave the applicant the ability to work beyond those hours with approval of a construction noise mitigation plan. Construction can take place at night as long as the noise ordinance objective standard is not exceeded by the work. That plan has been reviewed by our noise abatement coordinator to allow excavation work to commence in the evening, so trucks could utilize Market Street when less traffic is present and also keeps trucks away from the residential street to the north.

DPD calculated the noise from the site to the adjacent residential uses and found the noise is within the standard of 60 dBA. If neighbors feel the noise exceeds the limits of the ordinance, please contact our noise abatement coordinator at 684-7843 so he can respond.