If you’ve had a chance to walk through the Historic Third Ward recently, you have no doubt heard the cacophony of jackhammers, big drills that sound like John Henry’s ghost driving steel and beeping trucks bringing in gravel and sheet rock materials to construction sites. Sure, it’s inconvenient when you want to take a stroll to the Milwaukee Public Market or are en route to a Summerfest gig, but how loud is it? I took a stroll around the Third Ward with a sound level meter to find out.
In mid-February, the construction-related noise kept so many residents awake at night that more than 40 people complained to Ald. Bob Bauman. At the time, Bauman compared the noise to “the bombardment of Iraq.” The construction even took place in the wee hours since state work crews are exempt from following the city’s noise ordinance. That means they can keep hammering around the clock. Bauman has since considered getting rid of the exemption, going so far as to threaten a lawsuit against the contractors. As of yet, he has not followed through with that threat.
Sound is usually measured in decibels, but we have to keep two things in mind:
First, about 85 decibels over an extended period of time (eight hours) will cause hearing damage. And second, decibels are measured in a different way than a normal 1-100 scale. For example, 90 decibles is four times as loud as 70 decibels and 110 decibels is about 16 times as loud.. According to the Federal Interagency Committee on Noise, around 70 decibels is the base for comparison, which has about the same amount of noise as a vacuum cleaner.
That being said, upon leaving the Milwaukee Magazine offices on North Jefferson Street near the Summerfest Grounds, the meter read about 55 decibels, about the same level as a normal conversation in your home, which to my ears seemed relatively quiet, with the occasional car driving by to halt the silence.
After walking closer into what I would consider the middle of the Third Ward on North Broadway, the construction noise becomes more apparent. At a project near East Menomonee Street and Jefferson Street registered a reading of about 75 decibels when walking past a working jackhammer, about the same level you would get when listening to a car going 65 mph.
From there, I walked toward what I considered to be the loudest part of the construction near the St. Paul Avenue bridge. Just by walking along St. Paul Avenue, near where the construction was taking place, I got a reading of about 78 decibels, roughly about the same amount of noise your garbage disposal makes.
Just then, several booming “dings” echoed through the streets, much louder than I heard previously. I headed over to the intersection of East St. Paul Avenue and North Broadway to find a several-story tall rod pounding into the ground. The meter at its highest read 86 decibels, about the same as your average freight train when standing from a safe distance. .
So will the noise cause passersby permanent hearing loss? No, unless you stand at the corner of St. Paul and Broadway for eight hours. Is the noise really worth complaining about? It depends on whether you consider the noise a major hindrance or just a reality of living in a major city. (we’re betting proximity to the construction will color your answer.) Either way, the noise level is something to keep in mind the next time you decide to take a trip to the Third Ward.
