I totally understand that living in a modern, large city comes with both conveniences and inconveniences. I sure enjoy the conveniences but man, some of the inconveniences can drive you crazy. One such thing is construction.
I’ve been fairly lucky where I live because in the last six years or so I’ve dealt with very little construction noise. When I first moved in, the two other towers on my block were already well underway in terms of development. In the intervening years, my block has been quiet. That all changed about two weeks ago.
There’s been an empty lot next to my building for years. The developer who built my apartment building has been trying to get city council approval to build on that land for years. It’s taken years because said developer had no clue what the hell they were doing. They finally got approval this year and they’re starting building what undoubtedly be an ugly blight on this street.
Anyways, there’s nothing I can do about the construction. I’m not sure if you’re aware of how large and tall apartment towers are built but it starts with the foundation, specifically pile driving supports. This rhythmic action is loud and disruptive and they start as early as 7am at times. It’s loud enough to be heard almost twenty blocks away and I live right next to the site.
I estimate I’m woken up anywhere between an hour to an hour and a half early everyday now. It sucks but there’s not much I can do. The construction company is working within the city by-laws for construction times. I make sure that most of my windows are almost completely closed before I go to bed. That helps a lot but this type of noise cannot be totally shut out, even with all your windows closed.
The only solace that I can take from this is that the pile driving stage of construction won’t last forever. I expect this to go on for a few more weeks and that will be the loudest part of the construction hopefully. That’s not to say it will be completely silent at that point. The rest of the building will have to completed and you can just imagine the noise that will come from pouring concrete and everything else that goes into making a tall glass tower.
My hope is that the building will be finished within a year. Then I get to deal with the increased traffic on this street!