Construction projects exempt from East Gwillimbury's noise bylaws

YorkRegion.com
July 3, 2014
By Laura Finney

It may get a little bit noisier in parts of East Gwillimbury over the next few months as the town’s expected growth spurt begins to take shape.

The town approved an exemption to its noise bylaw last week to accommodate York Region’s micro-tunnelling projects.

The Sharon trunk sewer project and the 2nd Concession linear works projects, for example, will affect three main locations in the area; Roger’s Reservoir, the hydro corridor in Sharon and the 2nd Concession north of Green Lane.

A decision for the exemption came after discussions with Ward and Burke Microtunnelling, subcontractors for the project, and a presentation from Claudio Micelli, York Region’s project manager.

Micelli told council June 23 there will be times when work will be completed during normal operation, which is Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but that there might be some circumstances where work will have to go longer.

 “There will be some instances where the contractor will be required to operate his micro-tunnelling works 24/6,” said Micelli.

That means work will begin Monday morning at 7 and continue until Saturday at 7 p.m.

There are two main reasons for 24-hour operation times; long tunnel work or due to harsher winter conditions.

During winter work, the tunnel machines mixes a thin, sloppy mud or cement into the dirt that is later pumped out. If left overnight, it could freeze.

In winter, workers start prepping machines Monday morning, a process that takes three to four hours, then work straight through until Saturday afternoon when the lines are drained to prevent freezing.

Micelli also asked for a 24/7 exception for all projects.

“This is just in case there is an emergency,” he explained, adding if a worker feels he cannot stop a machine or that he will not be able to restart, he needs the bylaw exception to keep running.

He assured council noise would be kept to a minimum.

Trucks will be limited to normal hours, so during non-emergency, overnight operations, the only noise will be coming from an enclosed generator.

Micelli said it makes about 56 decibels of noise. In comparison a car driving by at 65 km/h is about 70 dBA and an air conditioner 100 feet away is about 60 dBA.

Not all the sections, however, require the same exemptions.

The 2nd Concession plan requires 24/6 exemption because of the length of the line. It is scheduled to run from July until September and will occur the same time as the widening of the road.

The Roger’s Reservoir plan also requires 24/6 exemption because it will be done in frozen ground conditions. It will run January to March 2015.

All sections will have 24/7 exemption for emergency use only.

Some members of council brought up a recent example where contractors working on another part of this project had to run later than the bylaw allowed. They did not have permission and some residents complained.

The mayor said there will be detailed communication with the residents about these projects.