Golden Ears Bridge noisy?
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Updated: October 27, 2009 12:58 PM
If the engineers are trying to find a way to quiet the thump-thump of the expansion joints of the Golden Ears Bridge, perhaps they should take a page out of the Pitt River Bridge.
The latter offers a different and quieter way of allowing for shifting structures, says Wharf Street resident Peter Vincent.
“It’s a totally different type of expansion joint and it doesn’t make any noise,” Vincent said.
He wonders why the bridges would have two entirely different types of expansion joints. The Pitt River Bridge joints have teeth that mesh while the Golden Ears looks almost like a cattle grid.
He admits, it would be expensive to re-do the joints on the Golden Ears Bridge, but says it can be done.
TransLink points out that the expansion joints for the Golden Ears Bridge were chosen to meet specific requirements for contraction, expansion and seismic stress.
The agency plans to report back to the public in November the results of their tests.
But there will be no easy answer to the problem.
Noise assessments show that barriers may not provide a complete solution, TransLink says.
Vincent lives a few houses down rather than directly beneath the Golden Ears Bridge in Hammond.
However, the background noise of a lime plant across the Fraser River in Langley muffles much of the traffic noise from above. When that plant is not operating on the weekend, Vincent says he can hear every vehicle cross.
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