PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A SEPTA repair project on the Market-Frankford Line in the city’s Northeast has raised the ire of City Council President Darrell Clarke. He is planning hearings on the noise and other side effects of the project.
SEPTA has been sand-blasting, cleaning and repainting the steel structures that support a section of elevated tracks a mile and a half long, from Womrath Street to the Frankford Transportation Center.
Clarke says some of the work is being done in residential areas — with equipment that doesn’t belong in residential areas.
“I got a number of calls, complaints, about these projects.”
He says people living near the site are disturbed by the heavy equipment and the noise.
“I’m told that the machinery and some of the things they’re using is the same machinery used on bridges, which is obviously a whole different environment,” he said.
And it’s true, according to SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch — true and unavoidable.
“For the work that has to be done, there isn’t smaller equipment that can be used. We have put up sound barriers to try to reduce the noise coming from it. We’re within the permitted decibel levels, but certainly it’s a loud project,” he said.
Busch says SEPTA has also been hearing from neighbors, but they can’t do much about the noise except work as quickly as possible and move on.
The work is scheduled to continue until July, but he said he believes the finished project will be such an improvement that residents will quickly forget the disruption.
Clarke said the City Council hearing will also look at how far in advance residents are notified before streets are shut down — he said residents think they are not given enough warning — and at whether there are adverse health effects from the removal of the old paint.
Busch says SEPTA will reassure him there are not.
“It’s enclosed. It doesn’t shoot out into the air. And anything that comes off of the structure is removed and disposed of,” Busch said. “But if those concerns are being raised, we want to make sure we’re answering any questions about that.”
A date for the hearing has not yet been set.