Expert: NS hub noise to be minimal

Noise from the operation of Norfolk Southern's railroad hub in McCalla, Ala., would have no impact on an adjacent elementary school or many of the surrounding homes and only a minimal impact on other homes, an expert said May 25, according to The Birmingham News.

David Baker, senior
audiology engineer with CH2MHILL in Portland, Ore., revealed the findings to
members of the McCallaCan citizens group. Baker said his firm set up monitors
at 10 different locations to determine how much noise currently comes from the
316-acre site where Norfolk Southern plans to build the $112-million Birmingham
Regional Intermodal Facility.

Despite plans for six
trains and as many as 400 truck trips per day moving in and out of the
facility, as well as the large cranes, hostlers and side loaders used to move
the shipping containers, Baker said Norfolk Southern’s plans to build 15-foot
berms topped with trees and landscaping will keep most noise from escaping the
site.

Even without the
landscaping and berms, Baker said computer models reveal noise reaching McAdory
Elementary School, which borders the hub property, would reach a maximum of 55
decibels during school hours, which is below government-approved limits. But
with the extra buffers Norfolk Southern will install, the noise level drops to
what the government would deem no impact.

Virginia Williams, a member
of the Community Outreach Group formed to voice McCalla issues and concerns to
the railroad, told Baker she found it hard to believe all of that activity
would produce "no impact."

"We’re dealing with
specific federal regulations," Baker said. "It’s not that you’re
never going to hear anything, but based on the federal regulation definitions,
what you will have is defined as having no impact.

Plans call for walls to
also be built between the hub and Sadler Ridge subdivision, the residential
neighborhood closest to the hub. Baker said that would block noise from the hub
to having virtually no impact there, as well.

The only homes that will
experience what is deemed "moderate impact" will be homes nearest the
hub but at higher elevations, which means some homes along Eastern Valley Road.

Lee Cochran, manager of
intermodal asset development for Norfolk Southern, said the noise study is part
of the environmental assessment the company is completing on the site, which
should be approved by the Alabama Department of Transportation and the Federal
Railroad Administration and released at a public meeting in July and August.

That final public meeting
is all that is needed before Norfolk Southern can begin construction, which
could start by the end of summer, officials said.

Plans call for the railroad
hub to be completed in early 2012, Cochran said.

Cochran said the environmental
assessment will also be released to the Jefferson County Board of Education,
which has hired its own experts to review Norfolk Southern’s findings to ensure
air, noise, traffic and other concerns will not impact the elementary school.