(The following story by Michael Tomberlin appeared on The Birmingham News website on May 26, 2010.)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Noise from the operation of Norfolk Southern’s railroad hub in McCalla 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 Tuesday.
David Baker, senior audiology engineer with CH2MHILL in Portland, Ore., revealed the findings to members of the McCallaCan citizens group Tuesday.
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 will 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.