New Westminster city council members have heard the noise themselves, and they’re also hearing residents’ concerns about the noise.
The noise is coming from new construction sites which require major pile driving in the downtown area.
While pile driving is a “necessary part of development,”Mayor Jonathan Cote said, because of the nature of pile driving perhaps the city should review bylaws that allow work to begin at 7 a.m. Monday to Saturday.
“I think the reality that anyone living in close proximity to the two major projects going on right now will attest that piling is a little bit different type of noise than your regular construction noise and should maybe have a different criteria,” he said at Monday night’s council meeting. “My intent is not to limit or stop this because it’s something that is absolutely necessary in construction, but I’d like to have a look to see what some other communities are doing.”
Pile driving is currently taking place at 1000 Quayside Dr. and at a site at the corner of 10th Street and Carnarvon Street.
“Quite honestly, when you are down there it is pretty bad. I think living with that would be quite challenging,” said Coun. Mary Trentadue, who has spoken with officials in other cities about pile driving. “There are other ways of doing piling. It may be somewhat more expensive, but it doesn’t impact the community as much. I think it’s fair to ask that of developers going forward on future projects.”
Trentadue also said the city should be considering whether six days a week is reasonable for pile driving.
“It doesn’t seem reasonable to me. It may very likely extend the length of a project, but for livability, I think that’s really a challenge,” she said. “I would look forward to a report back from staff on how we might adjust this going forward.”
Cote said the developers doing pile driving in downtown New West have voluntarily moved back the time their crews begin pile driving.
“We are probably six or seven weeks away from one of the major projects finishing the piling,” he said. “Really my intent of bringing this forward is for future projects and to look to see what best practices are across the region.”
Along with noise issues, Coun. Patrick Johnstone said he’d like the staff report to consider the various types of technology that exist for piling. While he’s not a structural engineer, Johnstone questioned if developers could speed up the piling process by driving several piles at a time instead of just one.
