Residents in Montreal’s Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough say they have been dealing with consistent loud booms at the site of the future Edouard-Montpetit REM station.
“It’s kind of like a huge bang,” said Perlinger.
“You feel like your neighbour on top is moving his couch or something. It goes off every morning.”
The REM’s own data shows noise limits set by the environment ministry have regularly been exceeded over the last few months.
“I hear the explosions,” said Alexis Boucher, who lives nearby.
READ MORE: Blasting at site of future Edouard-Montpetit REM station raises concerns
At 20 storeys underground, the station will be one of the deepest stations in North America.
Getting there is requiring a lot of heavy machinery, digging and dynamite — but once completed, it promises to send people downtown in three minutes.
“You get used to it,” said Adrian Perlinger, who lives close to the construction site.
“It kind of surprises you the first few times.”
Some of the noise violations happened between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m.
“It vibrates a lot. I have two ferrets and it wakes them up every time,” said Boucher.
READ MORE: Town of Mount Royal demands new REM tunnel
Quebec’s environment ministry acknowledged that, given the kind of work being done, noise rules will sometimes be broken.
REM spokesman Jean-Vincent Lacroix told Global News workers have “made every effort,” to minimize the impact of construction on people in the area.
He added the noise barrier at Edouard-Montpetit was recently raised over 15 feet, and monthly meetings are being held to review the situation and add additional mitigation measures.
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