By Kathianne Boniello
Step right up, eastern Queens residents — the state Department of Transportation is looking to you to make the decision on building sound barriers along the Long Island Expressway between the Nassau border and Springfield Boulevard.
A spokesman for the DOT said this week the agency is in the midst of canvassing the homes affected by noise from the LIE in Little Neck, Douglaston and Oakland Gardens to see which residents, if any, want the sound walls built.
Only residents identified in DOT studies as being affected by noise from the LIE or those who would be affected once the current construction is completed are being surveyed, the spokesman said.
A 1999 survey of eastern Queens residents yielded such a low response rate the agency could not get a consensus on whether residents wanted the noise barriers, said Jim Wilson, a DOT design supervisor for the project.
“We want, preferably, everyone to respond,” Wilson said of the current sound wall survey.
A typical noise barrier affects about 20 homes, Wilson said, and the DOT is currently looking to construct at least 12 in eastern Queens if residents respond positively to the agency’s survey.
Residents are being given the chance to vote on sound barriers — the large walls built alongside some sections of the LIE to mitigate noise from the highways — as a result of the Cross Island Parkway/LIE interchange project, Wilson said.
The roughly $112 million interchange project involves the reshaping of the intersection between the two highways and the restoration of parkland in Alley Pond Park. Because the state is required to do noise impact studies during any major reconstruction project, Wilson said, the sound barriers are being offered in eastern Queens.
Sound walls are built whenever a majority of residents who desire them respond to DOT surveys and wherever it is feasible and cost-effective to construct them, Wilson said.
If the DOT needs to access private property to build a sound barrier and several homeowners do not want a noise wall, he said it can become too expensive for the state to construct them. That’s why, Wilson said, the state sometimes cannot build a wall even when a majority of residents want one.
“The only people who have a vote are the impacted residents,” Wilson said. “It’s not a community vote.”
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
