Things may soon get a little bit quieter for residents living close to the Long Island Expressway (LIE) in Maspeth.
Even before becoming an elected official last November, Assemblyman Brian Barnwell heard complaint after complaint from community members about the noise levels on and near the LIE between Maurice Avenue and 108th Street.
“We talked to Brian Barnwell, before he was even elected,” said Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association (JPCA) during the group’s meeting on March 16. “We said you have to work on the noise on the LIE in Maspeth. It’s crazy here; you can’t even hear yourself talk.”
In response to the community’s concerns, Barnwell reached out to the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) to inspect the roadway and see if anything could be done to mitigate the noise coming from the LIE.
During the JPCA meeting, Barnwell officially announced that the state DOT agreed to diamond grind a portion of the roadway, which will alleviate some of the noise levels coming off of the LIE. Diamond grinding is a pavement preservation technique that not only smooths out roadway imperfections, but reduces the noise from the road as well.
As part of the maintenance program, State DOT will also repair of some of the pressure relief joints on the collector distributor road at the Queens Boulevard and Woodhaven Boulevard Interchange, a representative from the agency said.
According to the state DOT, the diamond grinding work on the LIE is expected to begin in the early summer and be finished by the end of the year
“They said they’re going to do it; I have the emails just in case,” Barnwell said. “We’ve got to make sure that they do it. They said a year, so we’re going to hold them to it.”
