Highway noise drives River Park South petition for barrier

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This article was published 18/05/2022 (1294 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A group of River Park South residents want the province to put up a noise barrier along a stretch of the south Perimeter Highway, saying heavy truck traffic has hampered the use of their yards.

Keri Sobkowich, 46, has lived with her husband and stepdaughter on Scammel Road, off of Aldgate Road, directly backing onto the highway, since a developer built up the Winnipeg area in 2014. She signed her contract pre-build in 2013.

“All we have is a wood fence and the berm is not much of a berm,” she said Monday, noting those were built by the developer.

“The wood fence doesn’t seem to do really anything — if anything, it kind of makes it echo more.”

Her understanding, pre-build, was those would be sufficient noise barriers, but that’s not the case, she said. “We want the province to put up a substantial — three metres tall, at least — (masonry or concrete) noise barrier on top of the berm.”

The 24-7 traffic on the highway is bothersome to residents, and it’s feared upcoming construction on the highway between St. Mary’s and St. Anne’s roads (and planned overpass at St. Mary’s) will worsen the noise, Sobkowich said.

“It might be a nice day but people still have to go in their house, they can’t hang out in their backyard and have conversations. They can’t have their windows open because the noise in the house would be way too loud, and even just going for a walk, sometimes, is really unpleasant.”

The noise from the heavy trucks rolling past has further irked her 73-year-old father.

“He’s done a lot of work for us in the backyard. He built the fence, he built the deck, he did some of our landscaping, and he just simply cannot have a conversation with me out there. He can’t hear with that traffic noise,” Sobkowich said.

The group, which started with a core of 14 homeowners but has spread through word-of-mouth, has started collecting signatures to present to the province.

“Everybody you talk to on the street is frustrated, but a lot of people feel like, ‘What’s the point? They’re not going to do anything for us. We kind of got screwed and there’s no point doing anything, because you know how the government is,’” she said.

Some have tried to speak with the local MLA, Tory Janice Morley-Lecomte, but she’s passed the concerns onto the provincial transportation and infrastructure department, Sobkowich said.

The homeowner noted NDP infrastructure critic Matt Wiebe has been receptive to the group, and plans to present its petitions to government, while the area’s city Coun. Markus Chambers has also been helpful.

Early Monday, the Free Press asked the province whether the transportation and infrastructure department is aware of the concerns, received requests for a barrier to be built or whether one is planned. A spokesperson didn’t provide a response by end of day.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera