City hopes to release sound barrier report this month

Although the consultant's report on the prototype wall was looked at by the Safety, Utilities and Environment Committee in January, and was further reviewed at a closed-door meeting of city council a month later, it has never been released to the public.

"There's nothing untoward about it," Mayor Karin Marks told the Examiner this week. She said that residents in the affected area who were questioned for their input are "pretty much all positive about it."

There's nothing very controversial about the report, she also insisted.

She said the only reason it hasn't been released is that the City wanted to make an event of it. "We've been delayed on this," added Marks. "It hasn't been a very high priority, because it's not going to change anything at the moment."

Marks said another reason for the delay was that the City also wanted to draw attention to the provincial government's financial contribution. "The reason we've not done it is that the provincial government gave us money to put up the prototype," she said.

"And normally, when you're given money from any level of government, there is some kind of a launching of the installation, and they are present and they receive the credit for the participation in it, which we certainly appreciate."

Marks said the timing to release the report would have been very bad given the recent provincial election. "We didn't want to do something very publicly right then because it could have been seen as electioneering for one party or another," she said.

According to Marks, the report when released will contain noise attenuation studies, as well as the results of the survey of the Abbott Avenue residents. In the meantime, an association of landscape architects has apparently bestowed an award for the sound barrier's design, she added.

The 30-metre sound barrier, mounted on concrete pillars with a transparent plastic top, was installed last summer next to the Ville Marie Expressway and the CP Rail tracks at a cost of $350,000. The City hopes to get answers to certain questions with the prototype, such as how well it bears up to graffiti, and whether it accumulates dirt from the expressway.

Sound tests of the wall's effectiveness started shortly after its completion. The field work was followed up with computer simulations using gathered data. Should it prove to be effective, many millions more could eventually be spent completing a permanent sound barrier extending the length of the expressway and the rail line in Westmount.