By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — News that the northbound 1 train would bypass the Dyckman Street station until 2011 was hard enough for Inwood resident Lili Grossman to take, but when jackhammers from the subway station's construction woke her up at 7 a.m. this weekend, she had had enough.
"I woke up Sunday morning to the jackhammering and I thought, 'this is crazy,'" said Grossman, 41, whose apartment is on neighboring Hillside Avenue. "Enough is enough."
Grossman, who has lived in Inwood for nearly 10 years, first called 311 for relief, but had no luck — the operator told her she had to make a complaint directly to the MTA. She said that a call to the Authority left her in a voicemail loop with no option for complaints about construction.
"I understand that the construction will be noisy, and residents will have to tolerate a certain amount of discomfort," she wrote in a letter to Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, "but I think every effort should be made by the MTA to minimize the worst of the noise to business hours during the week. Or to a more reasonable weekend hour."
"It is unbelievable that we will have no uptown service for nearly a year, which will be followed by no downtown service when the uptown service is restored, and a fair hike," she added. "But I find jackhammering at 7 a.m. on Sunday totally unacceptable."
The letter seems to have done the trick — for now.
The Deputy Chief of Staff for Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat said the transit authority has assured him that morning work will not begin before 10 a.m. until the MTA has figured out a way to close a gap in construction materials that allows too much sound to seep through.
"The MTA is working to mitigate and attenuate sound emanating from the work site, but first they have to test it and make sure it meets all the requirements," Espillat's spokesman told DNAinfo. "Future work may take place earlier than 10 a.m., but not until such time as they are able to close that gap."
For Grossman that news is music to her ears.
"There is only so much a girl can take before you crazy," she said.
The MTA did not return calls for comment.
