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Midway Noise Is 'Obscene,' Bridgeport Residents Say

By Casey Cora | July 24, 2014 8:32pm
 Speakers at Thursday's Midway Noise Compatibility Commission meeting line up to complain about jet noise.
Speakers at Thursday's Midway Noise Compatibility Commission meeting line up to complain about jet noise.
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DNAinfo/Casey Cora

GARFIELD RIDGE — Residential complaints about Midway International Airport jet noise are up, up  and away. 

Several months after a new flight path took effect — one that sends some of Midway's arriving flights right over South and Southwest Side neighborhoods — the number of noise complaints has soared, according to a report released by the city's Aviation Department on Thursday.

"The noise that people have to endure, it's almost constant. The planes are constantly landing. Constant noise. I'm getting flooded with phone calls about this," 11th Ward Ald. James Balcer said at Thursday's meeting of the Midway Noise Compatibility Commission, a quasi-governmental group charged with stewardship of airport-related noise issues.

A total of 594 noise complaints were logged from April through June, up from 183 in the first quarter of 2014, which covered January through March and includes February's debut of the new flight path.

The Aviation Department's report, called the "Airport Noise Management System," tracked the number of departing and arriving flights, runway usage, flight times and more. Distributed at Thursday's meeting, it soon will be available at the Aviation Department's website.

The system also tracked the number of noise-related complaints: how many complaints were made, how many households made them and where the complaints originated.

The vast majority, 396 complaints, came from city residents, many from neighborhoods the commission hasn't typically heard from before, including Bridgeport.

And the neighborhood showed up in force at Thursday's meeting, armed with complaints about barbecues canceled, conversations interrupted and kids waking up in the middle of the night.

Longtime resident James Brost, 48, said the planes have interrupted what had become a tranquil nature refuge at Palmisano Park.

"The planes are extremely low, they have their wheels down and the wheel bays open. They're low enough that I can almost read, not only who the carriers are, but with the naked eye, the tail numbers of the planes. They're coming in and in and in," he said.

The planes generally are supposed to follow Interstate 55 on their approach to Midway's Runway 22L, but residents like Cori Stankowicz said airline pilots are zooming right over Bridgeport.

Stankowicz, also of Bridgeport, said he wants to see the plane route moved north of the expressway so they'd fly over factories, not homes.

She said her family expected some noise from busy Archer Avenue and Interstate 55 when they moved awhile back, "however, the noise level from the 22L Runway has gone beyond annoying, beyond obnoxious. It's obscene," she said. 

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the new flight path was changed from its previous route  — which took northbound planes over the Far South Side, then button-hooked over Brighton Park on its descent into Midway — because it now "goes over fewer residences, is a safer straight-in line, reduces fuel burn, and saves time for the traveler."

But the new route, used for 29 percent of Midway's incoming flights, isn't likely to change anytime soon.

FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said changing the flight path would require meetings with the noise commission, public feedback and an environmental assessment conducted by the federal government.

At Thursday's meeting, noise commission chairman Thomas Baliga said "I would say it's not impossible" to change the route.

"It is definitely something we could look into," he said.

Also of concern for residents is a potential change in the "noise contours," the designated borders wherein homeowners qualify for subsidized soundproofing in what's known as the Residential Sound Insulation Program.

Changes of those borders, which don't include Bridgeport or McKinley Park, won't happen until 2018.

Still, residents are hoping for solutions to what they've called a growing nuisance, with frequent jet travel sending waves of loud roars across the Southwest Side.

For those residents who've found themselves suddenly enduring new flight noise, a Northwest Side group has a suggestion: Join them.

"Their experience is identical to ours. Same issues. Same patterns. Same results," said Jac Charlier, the Fair Allocation in Runways Coalition, a group that's trying to curb runway noise at O'Hare.

The group claimed a limited victory this month when Mayor Rahm Emanuel urged federal aviation officials to speed up a study that could result in more Northwest Side homes qualifying for soundproofing.

Still, Charlier has blasted the city's response to jet noise.

"Taking heat on the back end appears to be their strategy," he said.

The next meeting of the Midway Noise Compatibility Commission is scheduled for Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at The Mayfield banquet hall, 6072 S. Archer Ave.

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