Suara Lifestyle: BTV sound mitigation program creeping forward

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - A years-long effort to ease the noise from the Burlington airport is finally entering the construction phase. Hundreds of homes in towns surrounding the airport have been waiting for relief after years of loud jet noise, especially since the arrival of the F-35 fighter jets in 2019.

For Lori Potter, most days are disrupted by the sounds of commercial and military planes from the Burlington aiprort.

“You can’t not notice it. You can’t hear anything on the television. You stop all conversation. If you’re outside, it’s even louder,” Potter said.

The South Burlington woman lives on Kirby Road and is among the phase one homes slated to get updated insulation, new doors, and windows as part of the Burlington International Airport Voluntary Residential Sound Insulation Program started seven years ago.

“There’s a lot of benefits to doing this project. It’s kind of, why wouldn’t you do it? It’s free. But we’re still in line, still a waiting game, which, when it’s construction, you often are. So, still waiting, still waiting,” Potter said.

The program has been plagued by delays, including the most recent -- the company that was supposed to manufacture the windows went out of business. A new company has taken over and work is now expected to begin at the end of this month. The first 15 homes are expected to be finished by the end of the year and construction will begin on another 52 homes next year.

“Currently, we’re working with over 100 households in the South Burlington and Winooski areas to start designing and implementing these noise and sound insulation programs. Every year, we’re going to be doing the same thing, designing and installing and working with the homeowners with this voluntary program,” said Airport director Nic Longo.

He says this is funded by the FAA and recently they received another $5.5 million for more mitigation. There’s also an effort underway to update the noise exposure map, which details how loud the jets are for homes, schools, and businesses in the flight path. It’s broken into what’s called the day-night average sound level, or DNL, which ranges from 65 decibels -- the lowest threshold of eligibility -- to 75 decibels, which can be harmful for prolonged periods of time.

“This map is what identifies the eligible area within our sound programs. So, it’s really important that we maintain and keep that updated map so that the Federal Aviation Administration continues to fund these noise programs,” Longo said.

The goal -- and a requirement from the FAA -- is to reduce the interior noise levels below 45 dB, or what’s described as typical household noise.

But some residents are not sure they want invasive work done on their property. “They want to come into people’s homes and have the person who lives there remove the furniture away from the walls and then they would put up new soundproofing and wallboard, which would decrease the square footage in the interior of the home,” said Michele Korpos, who lives on Maryland Street in South Burlington.

She says she is frustrated she can’t pick and choose what type of mitigation work is done. She wants new windows and doors but doesn’t want her house torn up. “The noise is very bad with the F-35s. The F-16 were not as bad but they were still quite noisy. The F-35s are deafening,” Korpos said.

There are around 2,500 housing units that have been identified as eligible for some form of sound mitigation. Project planners anticipate it will take upwards of 20 years to complete updates to all of the impacted homes.

Suara Lifestyle

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Sunday, September 10, 2023

BTV sound mitigation program creeping forward - WCAX

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