This story was originally posted Nov. 6. It has been updated to include additional information from the Department of Transportation.
SHINE — The Hood Canal Bridge may be stronger than it was before its spring overhaul, but it’s also noisier.
Residents near the bridge say the sound of vehicles crossing the span has been magnified since major construction ended in June and is much louder now than it ever had been. Several have asked the state Department of Transportation to look for ways of dampening the noise.
Kent Berryman has lived north of Hood Canal Bridge for seven years. He’d never noticed noise from the bridge until June 3, when it reopened following a one-month, $499 million reconstruction project.
Noise from the bridge was loud enough to wake Berryman and his wife early Wednesday morning.
“My first impression was that it was like living by an airport,” Berryman said. “It sounds kind of like a jet engine, with the tires rolling over the grates.”
State Department of Transportation spokesman Joe Irwin said the department has been in discussing bridge noise with “a handful” of Hood Canal homeowners since July.
The bridge’s daily soundtrack includes two distinct noises: the roar of tire tread over the rough surface and the thumps of vehicles pounding over a joint on the east end of the bridge. About 16,000 vehicles cross its span each weekday; on weekends the traffic hits 20,000 vehicles each day.
“It’s these really tremendous thuds and booms,” Hood Canal homeowner Douglas Janachek said, adding the sounds seem to vary depending on the tide height and humidity. “Sometimes it’s really loud, so times it’s not as loud.”
Irwin said the expansion joints allow the bridge to be flexible as the tide rises and falls, and are recessed to protect them from damage. The booming noises are made as vehicles roll over these gaps. Bridge noise can be heard clearly along the nearby shoreline and as far away as the Driftwood Key neighborhood of Hansville.
Contractor Kiewit-General is still working on anchoring the bridge, which could help cut down on noise from the joints, Irwin said.
Engineers have determined that the loudest tire noise comes from vehicles crossing steel deck grates. Irwin said there are concrete strips across the grates that vehicles are supposed to travel on but sometimes deviate from. More grates surfaces were added during the bridge reconstruction, which adds to the ambient noise, Irwin said.
Crews have ground down the concrete surface of the bridge deck to make it smoother.
Irwin said the department may find more ways to quiet the bridge once construction is completed on the eastern span.
“We are continuing to review the bridge and any feasible solutions which could reduce traffic noise,” Irwin said.
Both Berryman and Janachek said they were frustrated in their early attempts to get information from the department on the bridge noise.
Irwin said a mistake was made and it took the department more than a month to respond to Berryman’s first inquiry. He said he apologized to Berryman for the mistake.
After talking with department representatives, Janachek wrote a letter to Gov. Christine Gregoire’s office. He received a personal reply from JC Lindsay, a chief engineer with the bridge project, who outlined many of the same points Irwin had made.
Janachek said he hasn’t noticed any reduction in bridge noise since June, but he hopes the department can still come through with a fix.
“It’s been a big issue for our family and a lot of neighboring families,” he said.
