SINGAPORE: A man complained on social media about the loud noise coming from the road construction going on close to his house. He complained about how difficult it was to figure out who to contact for assistance.
On Sunday, October 22, at 3 a.m., Mr. BK Tan posted on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page stating that the noise levels from the road construction had reached over 65 dB within 150 meters of a residential area. He then asked, “Is it allowed?”
He continued by saying that he had made several unsuccessful calls to the National Environment Agency (NEA). Additionally, he stated that by Monday, October 23, the agency had responded, stating that the roadwork is considered a “critical infrastructure diversion” and must be finished. This would account for the reason that work continued through the hours of midnight and five in the morning.
But he also wrote that the project team informed them that no new updates had been received and that the roadworks had to end at 11:00 in accordance with previous correspondence. Furthermore, as of October 23, there had been no responses from the LTA.
In addition, Mr. Tan included a link to a page on the NEA website about construction noise control. This page details the permissible noise levels according to the time of day, the kind of building that is affected, and whether the noise occurs on a Sunday or a public holiday.
He also uploaded the following queries:
“Question: NEA’s regulations apply across other agencies, (LTA)??
Question: Does LTA aware of NEA’s noise regulations?
Question : Does LTA still approve works if they aware of the Noise’s regulations?
Question: To Meet critical milestone of the project, rules (as above) can be ‘negotiated’?
Question: What avenues (besides) for concerned resident to go other than MP and PMO?”
Not just Mr. Tan, but other locals have voiced their displeasure with the noise caused by road construction. Residents complained about the ongoing “awful noise” brought on by the construction of the North-South Corridor in January of this year.
A number of Singaporeans spoke about the challenges they face as a result of the construction; one 24-year-old said that while working from home, he must “deal with the pounding and whirring of machines.” He described the noise as “horrible” and said he had to shut his curtains and windows to block it out.
A Marymount resident went to considerable measures last year to record the noise level outside his home that was keeping him up at night. He even purchased a noise level monitor and posted a video of their nightly struggle on TikTok.
The resident uses the TikTok account Noisymarymount, and it seems that this was the reason behind its creation. “Noise due to the construction of North South corridor along Marymount” is how it is described. (TISG)
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