Why is it that Century Village does not have a SOUND BARRIER
along the western edge adjacent to the Florida Turnpike?
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Your Blogmeister replies
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REF:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/conezone/entries/2007/04/06/plan_to_speed_up_noise_wall_ni.html
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Plan To Speed Up Noise Wall Nixed
County Commissioner Jeff Koons thought he had come up with a way to accelerate the construction of a noise wall for residents at Century Village.
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The retirement community is located next to Florida’s Turnpike, just north of Okeechobee Boulevard. Residents aren’t too happy about waiting another eight years, when the highway is scheduled to be widened from Okeechobee to PGA Boulevard, for a wall.
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Why not extend the northern limits of a project set to begin in 2011 between Lake Worth Road and Okeechobee to include the Century Village area, Koons proposed.
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It won’t work, turnpike officials responded.
“Construction limits established at Okeechobee Road serve as logical termini where an additional lane can be dropped at the northbound exit ramp,” James Ely, the turnpike’s executive director, wrote Koons.
“To extend the widening past the exit would require increased merging areas and contribute to increased safety concerns and the potential for future bottlenecks.”
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Ely went on to say that projects in Palm Beach County are some of the turnpike’s highest priorities. It’s possible, if additional money becomes available, the widening between Okeechobee and PGA can start sooner than 2015, he said.
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The state only builds noise walls when the adjacent highway is expanded.
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Ely ended his letter on a cautionary note for the folks at Century Village.
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The noise barriers “may not provide the degree of relief anticipated by residents and would only noticeably reduce traffic noise for those residents within close proximity to the noise barriers. Residents above the first floor and beyond the first row of homes nearest the barriers may notice little or no difference in noise levels.”
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Thanks for the info
ReplyDeleteThe last paragraph is the clincher. I lived on a service road to the equivalent to I95. They built a sound barrier on a short area of the road to see if it would work. It was torn down maybe a year later as it did not work. Sound rises! The 2nd floor dwellers will have no relief at all.
ReplyDeleteI went to a DOT presentation on our lack of sound barrier a few years ago. They presented a good deal of science that trees and vegetation provide almost no noise relief. Also noise travels in a curve, up, over and down beyond a wall, (not good). Also as recorded above, barriers are only considered when there is a major road widening project.
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