If Urban Loop noise walls will only be constructed in front of homes built before 1996…?

Angry neighbors complain about loop

 

…agreeing road noise is unpleasant, representatives from the state Department of Transportation told the crowd that, basically, they were out of luck.

 

Noise walls have been constructed beside only a few neighborhoods and all those homes were built before 1996, the date the road's current route was declared publicly, DOT officials said.

 

DOT policy prevents residents living in neighborhoods built after that time from being considered for sound barriers retroactively, they said.

"DOT does not have jurisdiction over what's built next to the highway," state noise analyst Greg Smith said. "That's a municipal issue. It was built with full knowledge that the highway was to be there."

 

In some cases, DOT found areas where noise levels were high enough to justify a wall, but there were too few houses there in 1996 to make a wall feasible.

 

DOT could plant landscaping to provide a visual screen, but even that would be centered in neighborhoods that were built before 1996 but which did not qualify for a noise wall.

 

Taft Wireback

Greensboro News and Record

 

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