Racket from Henday has nearby homeowners complaining loudly
City ban on truckers' noisy engine retarder brakes poorly enforced, critic says
Susan Ruttan, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 9:13 am
EDMONTON - It's a sound John Cantin knows too well, the loud staccato noise of a trucker applying engine retarder brakes.
"They're very loud and disruptive, especially at 3 a.m. on a summer night when you're wakened from a deep sleep," Cantin told city councillors Tuesday.
Cantin lives in the Wedgewood neighbourhood near the intersection of Anthony Henday Drive and Lessard Road. The noise of trucks hitting their brakes at the Lessard traffic light is driving him and his Wedgewood neighbours crazy.
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Font:****The noise is so loud that someone living on the east side of Wedgewood can tell when the traffic lights on the Henday turn red, he told city council's transportation and public works committee.
Coun. Karen Leibovici backed up Cantin's complaint. "It's like nothing I've ever heard."
It's of little comfort to Cantin that there will eventually be a Henday overpass to eliminate the traffic light.
That overpass should be built now before further expansion of the Henday, he told the committee.
A report to the committee says the province hasn't yet allocated funds to build the overpass.
Cantin takes little comfort in a city bylaw that prohibits the use of engine retarder brakes within city limits. The bylaw isn't enforced properly, he said.
"When I was preparing my brief to councillors yesterday afternoon, I counted 10 (retarder brake) violations in a four-hour period," Cantin said.
Engine retarder brakes are a supplement to regular brakes used in many heavy trucks. City police last year distributed a brochure to trucking businesses explaining the brakes aren't to be used within city limits.
Cantin said Wedgewood people hope to create a common front with other residents along the Henday -- in Lewis Estates, Glastonbury, the Hamptons, Lymburn and Cameron Heights -- to seek action on freeway noise.
A contributing problem is the road surface on the southwest leg of the Henday, a grooved concrete that creates a drone from vehicle tires unlike that of asphalt, he said.
A city noise test of the Wedgewood area found noise levels just within the maximum acceptable level of 65 decibels.
Audra Jones, the city's director of sustainable transportation, said the provincial government did noise testing on grooved concrete versus asphalt and found the concrete only one decibel noisier, not enough difference to be heard from property owners near the freeway.
The Henday was built and is maintained by the provincial government. Although the city noise bylaw applies to the road, any actions like noise walls to reduce noise would be a provincial responsibility, the committee was told.
Leibovici suggested that Cantin contact the new MLA for the Edmonton-McClung riding, Conservative David Xiao, to press his noise concerns.
Traffic counts for 2007 show 36,400 vehicles a day driving the Henday at the North Saskatchewan River bridge, a jump of 12,800 vehicles in one year.
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© The Edmonton Journal 2008
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