A resident of one downtown Bethesda apartment building reports that residents' sleep was interrupted by a fleet of front loaders and dump trucks early this morning between 2:00 and 3:00 AM.
The well-choreographed ballet involved machines large and small, working together to remove plowed snow from the Woodmont Triangle area. These photos are taken from the area around the Bethesda Place apartments, and Lionsgate condos.
Those smaller machines pictured moved snow from curbs to form a massive pile in the center of Woodmont Avenue, as you can see. Then it was loaded into the dump trucks to be hauled out of town.
This the result of the unique challenge of snow removal in urban areas - there really isn't any place to put the snow. Thus contractors must be called in to haul it away. They left and then returned around 3:50, the resident reports.
Obviously, the early hour makes it much easier to carry out this operation, when there are few pedestrians or cars to worry about. Sleeping neighbors vs. angry daytime drivers is probably a no-win situation.
There's been a bit of both with last year's utility work under Wisconsin Avenue. I received emails from angry residents during night operations (8200 & Rosedale Park), and angry drivers when Verizon worked on the outbound side during the evening rush.
Is there a good answer to these sorts of dilemmas?
The people who make these decisions are focussed 100% on traffic flow. There's never any regard for noise at night. Perhaps it needs to be that way for snow removal. Planned construction is another matter. If nothing else residents should be informed with flyers or phone calls weeks in advance. That way at least some might be able to make alternative arrangements.
ReplyDeleteThe county doesn't care about noise complaints from downtown residents. (PARVA anyone?)
ReplyDeleteIn fact, they reported that noise complaints are almost non existent.
The residents will either complain about the noise or the unplowed streets and sidewalks. Lol.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in a city with a lot of snow and they did it the same way. By doing it at night, there is less risk of those big machines with poor visibility hitting a passing pedestrian or vehicle.
ReplyDeleteYou know how disruptive it would be to leave the snow there, or how dangerous it would be to remove it during the day? Want a solution? Here's one: quit your bitchin'.
ReplyDelete8:13: I'm not "b****in' ", I'm just reporting what happened. I don't recall taking sides in the article. Quit your trollin'.
DeleteWhen I hear the sound of a plow at 3 AM, I am very happy to know that my street and parking areas are being cleared.
ReplyDeleteAmen to 8:18!
Deletelol...it's true. The snowplow drivers are real heroes when we're waiting to get off our streets. No complaints here.
ReplyDelete"The county doesn't care about noise complaints from downtown residents. (PARVA anyone?)"
ReplyDeleteLOL, one excitable resident in the Fairmont, with a spy-cam.
8:13 here. Robert, I'm just saying that framing this as a balance between "neighbor vs. driver" interests is inaccurate. Doing this sort of operation during the day to get rid of snow is not an option any more than, say, carpet-bombing Old Georgetown Rd with napalm. It has far more to do with pedestrian safety than it does disrupting drivers.
ReplyDeleteRobert, related to this, right now we is 11:30 and there is a unique noise from 7700 construction. Why is there a loud steady humming generator sound? I thought it's topped out and will be quieter? Plus why at 11 pm on a weeknight? I'm on same building you reference in this blog post. Unluckiest/noisiest building location in Montgomery county?
ReplyDelete8:35: I wonder if it could be providing heat for equipment or materials on the site, assuming there is no central air system running in the building yet.
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