Residents call for more sound barriers to block noise from the Queensway.
While other Ottawa neighbourhoods are getting refurbished sound barriers to muffle the roaring engines on the Queensway, Centretown residents are pushing to end their long wait for better buffers.
Shawn Menard, president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, says barriers would reduce sound pollution for three blocks on either side of the Queensway and it might even increase property values in the area.
Menard says the CCCA has begun looking into the issue again, researching the options and speaking with officials.
“It’s something we do want to act on eventually, but we need to do a little more research to get to the crux of the issue,” he says.
A spokesperson from Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes’ office says the issue has been going on for decades.
“It keeps popping up,” says Laura Bergen, “so there’s certainly community interest in getting those barriers.”
Paul Gross, a Flora Street resident, agrees the area needs better sound proofing.
Gross, who lives two blocks north of the Queensway, says highway traffic creates a constant hum he can hear in his backyard and when his back windows are open.
He says he’s been working with other Centretown residents as well as Holmes, trying to get the provincial government to erect the barriers along the Queensway from Bronson Avenue to Lyon Street.
For Gross, the missing sound barriers are more than a personal nuisance – they are a social injustice.
“We just want the same things that other neighbourhoods have,” he says.
According to Gross, the province put the Centretown barriers on a provincial retrofit list in 2005.
However, Gross says they still haven’t heard when the barriers will be installed.
Gross added that the noise pollution from the Queensway is exacerbated by barriers facing the Glebe, on the south side of the highway.
“Not only are they being protected and we’re not, but the sound bounces off of those barriers [and] thereby increases the amount of noise that goes into Centretown,” he claims.
As old barriers along other stretches of the Queensway are being revamped, Gross says now would be the most cost-effective time to install the Centretown barriers.
However, Gross was told by the MPP’s office that the Centretown barriers are not being built.
“They have all the crews. They have all the equipment," he says.
"The marginal cost to install our barriers would be quite low and it looks like they are just not planning to do it. It’s just ridiculous.”