One Aston family has learned that noise complaints do matter.
Resident Ralph Hassel and his family who live behind the newly built Springbrooke Trade Center complex off Pennell Road behind the Applebee’s.
The family was experiencing constant low-level noise and vibration since late last year.
The noise came from building 500, home of Thayer Distribution, and was a result of the loading and unloading of trucks, many with refrigeration systems.
Early in 2023 Hassel went to township commissioners with his complaints.
“It does penetrate our house and I am doing everything I can financially and physically to help my family,” Hassel said at the March commissioners meeting. “We couldn’t find a place in the house to escape the vibration.”
The family built a fence to try to reduce the problem but it didn’t help.
Hassel said his family had resorted to heavy duty headphones to try to block out the noise and his daughter isn’t able to study, so she walks a mile and a half to the library to try to escape it.
His wife, Debbie, said the noise had been the worst thing she had ever gone through.
“What do we do? Can somebody give us a solution?” she said at the March meeting. “It’s just a nightmare for us.”
At that meeting, Vice President Michael Higgins spoke about the noise and vibration problem residents of Woodbrook Way have been experiencing. And in reaction to the complaints, township engineers and acoustical consultants began taking readings of the noise and vibration and communicating with the developer.
Jeff Holcomb, managing director at Trammell Crow Co., the property developers, said that after November they learned of impacts from tenant activity on nearby residents that included headlights and other issues to the neighbors.
They have been taking readings, and engineers compared the noises with time logs residents have recorded
Township officials, consultants and engineers met with company officials of Trammell Crow, reviewed the data and alternatives were discussed.
Higgins called the type of vibrations being experienced “extremely complex” and requiring further discussion and evaluation by consultants.
To approve the noise abatement walls Trammell Crow was proposing, commissioners first needed to pass an ordinance allowing them to regulate the building of sound walls. This allows the township to put the plans before township engineers.
During Wednesday’s commissioners meeting, Holcomb said his company plans to install the walls at three locations around the property.
The company initially selected a wall system that reflected noise and were ready to implement that. But before that they set out sound measuring devices and decided to make a change in the wall for one that stops both high- and low-decibel levels, such as using a dumpster as well as semi-truck related noise.
The walls will be perforated on one side and filled with a sound-absorbing insulation and be placed in three areas, one at the northeast corner, which will be 225 feet long and 30 feet tall to provide a blocking element to the properties to the north.
To the northwest corner, Trammell wants to install another 225-foot wall that’s 20 feet high, which is on a higher spot so doesn’t need as much height.
Along the Upper Chichester side of the property, Trammell plans on a 525-foot-long and 15-foot-high wall. Properties behind there sit low.
Holcomb said company engineers believe the walls will result in a lowering of the decibel level issues reaching residents home.
“We think it is a good solution. We think it will help with headlights, it will help with activity in the loading dock areas … motor noise,” Holcomb said.
Holcomb did not give a date the walls would be installed. He said they were electing to do the work but he didn’t want to give a firm date since he was concerned about material availability. He did say they would install the walls expeditiously upon receiving the materials.
Commissioner Frederick Prendergast thanked the company and said it had taken a while to sort out a solution.
Higgins noted the low frequency noise was an issue coming from the refrigeration units on the trucks, which he noted “some people hear and some people don’t.”
“We want to make sure the idea with the walls, is it’s going to stop the low frequency vibration,” Higgins said. “We want to make sure we cover what is the biggest problem for everybody.”
“If the wall stops that, (the noise) I’ll be happy,” said Ralph Hassel.
He also thanked the company and township for listening to his complaints and he knows the fixes aren’t inexpensive, and the company is holding true to working with neighbors.
“I came into this process feeling hopelessness, I’m just a victim, … nobody’s going to listen to me, how many neighbors are complaining, really,” Hassel said. “I’m appreciative of everyone’s efforts. I was surprised to see someone actually listens.”
Commissioners unanimously approved the sound barriers.
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June 24, 2023 at 06:21PM
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Aston Township approves sound barriers to give family piece of mind - The Delaware County Daily Times
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