Residents Continue to Push for Noise Barrier Along Parkway

Residents of the Evergreen Woods condominium complex continue to press the Brick Township Council for help in getting a sound barrier built along the Garden State Parkway.

John Sluka and Michele Spector, who have been voicing complaints for themselves and their neighbors for months, told the council on Tuesday night that they took their complaints to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority meeting last week. But with the exception of one commissioner, their complaints were treated dismissively, they said.

“They told us. ‘We’re doing the best we can within the parameters,’ “ Sluka said, expressing frustration at the lack of concern.
Residents of Evergreen Woods have been seeking a sound barrier wall for months, complaining that the noise of construction -- the Parkway is being widened to add shoulders between Brick and Neptune -- is waking young children late at night, and expressing concerns about the effect of diesel fuel and its exhaust triggering asthma.

‘The widening project, which began in 2013, is expected to be completed in 2015.

Spector and Sluka said the lack of response was frustrating, and asked the council to form a committee to look at ways to convince the authority to build the wall. The council seemed amenable to the creation of such a committee.