If you want to know what it sounds like inside St. Anslem’s School when the R Train rumbles along below, just stand next to an idling bulldozer.
Or put your ear up to a running blender. Both generate about 85 decibels — the same sound levels this paper measured as subway cars rolled by beneath the Ridge parochial school on July 3.
The train noise is a distraction for pupils, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has to do something about it, community members said.
“How can you teach a class with a bulldozer in the room?” said school parent Pam Pazarecki, likening the earth-rattling train noise to a similarly loud earth-mover. “The vibrations get so bad, and the school shakes so heavily, that you can’t even speak or be heard.”
Last year, vibrations were so bad they caused cracks in the neighboring church’s facade.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority measured vibrations in the school’s basement, but it refused to share the results with administrators, St. Anslems’ pastor said.
“MTA sent technicians and said there is an increase [in vibrations] but they said it’s not that bad,” said Monsignor John Maloney. “They shut you down right away.”
Another Fourth Avenue resident about 10 blocks north of the school had a similar experience.
“The MTA installed a vibration monitor in my basement twice, and they have not followed up with me,” said Sheila Lynch of 72nd Street. “I don’t know what the point of the monitoring is if they’re not telling you how they’re going to be reacting to it.”
Councilman Vincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) has sent another in a series of letters calling on the authority to implement noise-reduction measures and buy new trains to replace the fleet of nearly 40-year-old cars that serve the line, citing $1 billion in unexpected revenue the authority recently discovered as a feasible funding source.
The transportation authority suspended service to Bay Ridge for 10 nights over the last two weeks to make repairs on the line. The work included some noise-mitigation measures, and there’s a more comprehensive fix on the horizon, but Ridgites will have to wait, an authority spokesman said.
“[Transit] workers have already replaced defective tie blocks, replaced plates and rails, and tamped and regulated sections of the track,” said spokesman Kevin Ortiz. “We have also identified funds in order to complete the installation [of] Continuous Welded Rail utilizing the best resilient rail fasteners. This job requires several thousand feet of CWR. We hope to be able to schedule the work in the coming months.”
The sound at St. Anslem’s is not immediately dangerous — the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration only requires mitigating measures for job-sites subject to similar sound levels constantly for eight hours or more at a time. But the regular rumble is still a constant annoyance for students, faculty, and staff at the school, Maloney said.
“This is every day,” he said as the train rattled by.
