BOOM-ING BUILDERS
Construction too noisy
ALBANY — Booming construction and lax efforts by city agencies to control it have led to soaring noise complaints in the five boroughs, a report Thursday revealed.
Construction noise complaints called into the 311 system jumped from 14,259 in 2010 to 37,806 in 2015, with the vast majority involving work taking place late at night or early in the morning.
State Controller Thomas DiNapoli’s audit faulted the Department of Buildings for not taking enough care in issuing permits for after-hours work and found that the agency, along with the Department of Environmental Protection, did a poor job responding to complaints.
“The city Department of Buildings has allowed noisy work to take place on thousands of projects well before and after normal construction hours,” DiNapoli said.
The Department of Buildings said it agreed with many of DiNapoli’s findings and was working to improve its procedures, noting it issued 28% fewer after-hours permits last year than in 2011.
Ted Timbers, a Department of Environmental Protection spokesman, said the agency “looks forward to closer coordination with” the Department of Buildings.
The city’s noise code allows construction to take place on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., but the Department of Buildings can issue permits allowing afterhours work in certain circumstances. DiNapoli’s audit found that the department often issued such permits without proper vetting.
A construction project at 100 East End Ave. in Manhattan generated 122 noise complaints during the two-year-period, the most in the city. During the same period, the department issued 24 consecutive renewals of its after-hours permit.