Turcot construction noise keeping Saint-Henri residents up at night

Saint-Henri residents say they are fed up with the noise coming from the Turcot Interchange construction, especially overnight.

Soundtests completed by monitoring stations set up by Quebec's Transport Ministry showconstruction work has gone over the acceptable levels more than once.

• Turcot Interchange work could lead to depression and anxiety, psychologists say

Peter Krantz, who lives on St-Antoine Street next to Highway 720, says he's often kept up at night because of the noise.

"There's, you know, 200 to300 residents sleeping in this area and there's this one tractor working all night long, disturbing all these people," he said.

"When you're sleeping and you have to listen to this back-up beeper, which was specifically designed to irritate the human body, it's very difficult to have a good night's sleep."

A report by Montreal public health officialsfoundnoise levels at night are often higher than norms established by Transport Quebec and the World Health Organization.

"The studies tend to talk about annoyance and sleep disturbance, those are the health effects on a short term basis that we know about," said Karine Price, a toxicologist with theDirection rgionale de sant publique.

Saint-Henri residentMlanie Shawn Seney says it's not justthe sound that bothers her.

"It'sbeen lots of vibration. [The]vibration this summer was just like, 'huuuh,' it just shakes," she said.

"You wonder if there's an earthquake."

Ministry on tight schedule

Transport Quebec says it is doing what it can to alleviate the sound levels but it's dealing with a tight schedule that requires night work.

SpokespersonSarah Bensadoun says building the newHighway136needs to be completed before the planned closure of 720 east in November.

• New Turcot will be built with recycled materials from old one

She says the ministry is working with the company contracted to do the work, KPH Turcot, to comply with the thresholds and put in measures to mitigate the noise.

When it comes to work at night, Bensadoun says additional measures are taken, such as limiting particularly noisy work to the day and decreasing the speed of noisier trucks at work.