Port Authority Criticized Over WTC Noise

By Nick Pinto
POSTED JANUARY 16, 2007

Neighbors of the World Trade Center site may have been pleased with news that the Port Authority will be taking steps to reduce the noise coming from the nearby construction, but when representatives of the Port Authority appeared before Community Board 1’s World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee Jan. 14, they mostly heard complaints.

Under pressure from the community and elected representatives, the Port Authority agreed in January to adopt a six-point noise-reduction program, including the installation of sound barriers on Liberty Street, the use of jackhammer covers and quieter back-up alarms on trucks, and an effort to restrict the noisiest work to daytime hours. Perhaps most significantly, the agency agreed to pay for the installation of noise-reducing windows for residences within 100 feet of the site, up to $1,200 per window.

CB1 member Pat Moore, an outspoken resident of 125 Cedar Street, said the plan is late.

“It has been a long time in coming,” Moore told Port Authority spokesman Glenn Guzzi. “I would like you to take a message back to your executives that if they lived in our community this would have been resolved a lot sooner.”

Many also feel that the noise reduction plan is inadequate.

“The not-so-good news is that we have yet to receive an iron-clad assurance that residents will be guaranteed quiet from 11 p.m. onwards or over any part of the weekend,” said Councilman Alan Gerson, who helped negotiate the plan.

Downtown residents were also frustrated by the limitations on the sound-reducing window funding. Why, many wanted to know, were the grants limited to windows facing the site?

Stuart Yule of the Millennium Hotel, which fronts the construction site, said his hotel is losing business because of the noise, but the noise reduction plan only pays for noise reducing windows for residential buildings.

“We’ve been issuing earplugs to our guests and we have sound machines, but it’s still a big problem,” Yule said. “How are you going to compensate us?”

Others were skeptical about Guzzi’s claim that the special windows are capable of reducing noise by 80 or 90 percent.

“I’ve registered 90 dba in my apartment,” said Ron Williamson, an engineer who lives in 125 Cedar St. (Dba is a weighted decibel unit used to environmental noise. 90 dba is roughly equivalent to the noise from a major road from ten yards away, and can cause hearing loss from long-term exposure.) “There’s no such thing as percent reduction of dba. So you’re going to bring my 90 dba down to what?”

Neighbors are also wary of the authority’s refusal to scale back their frantic work schedule.

“We will continue to work long days,” said Quentin Brathwaite, who oversees the Port Authority construction on the site. Brathwaite added that more rock-blasting is scheduled in the southern part of the tub for the end of January, with still more blasting on the north side, near Vesey street, after that.

The rush is largely driven by a clause in the Port’s contract with Silverstein Properties, which dictates that the Port pay Silverstein $300,000 for every day past the December deadline for turning over the site to the developer. Already the late fees are expected to add up to more than $9 million.

But CB1 member Tom Goodkind pointed out that the Port Authority is saving $10 million in a withheld bonus to the Port’s contractor.

“There seems to be no monetary reason for you to speed this up,” Goodkind said.

It was a point that resonated with many downtown residents.

“If you calculated the rents of all the downtown buildings and all the people being affected by this, that would also be a very large number,” said Peter Levenson, the owner of 90 West Street.

Mark Scherzer, a resident of 125 Cedar Street, agreed.

“How is the 300,000 a day a burden compared to what the community is being asked to put up with?”

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