Sleep Deprived Lynbrook Residents Have Had Enough of Overnight Construction

Lynbrook residents have been kept awake most nights this month and possibly a week or so prior due to a construction project on Merrick Road conducted exclusively overnight. According to a flyer distributed by National Grid, a gas main replacement project along Merrick Road was scheduled to begin at the corner of Columbus Drive on October 20th and progress westward about one mile into Valley Stream. By the night of Monday, November 3rd, the jackhammers had reached the corner of Blossom Heath Avenue, the epicenter of the project for the past week. Residents at and near that corner, including tenants in at least two apartment buildings on Merrick Road have been kept awake seven of the past eight nights by the inescapable sound of generators, jack hammers, trench cutters, asphalt saws and other heavy machinery operating right outside their bedroom windows.

Each night since, except for Sunday, the work has started at 10:00 PM and continued until early morning hours, ceasing between 3:30 and 5:30 AM. For anyone unfamiliar with the ordeal of a jackhammer operating fifty paces from your bedroom window, consider that our living room television could not be sufficiently heard over the noise on that first night.

The Nassau County Department of Permits is the office responsible for the decision to conduct the work at night. They tell complaining residents that night work is necessary because of the traffic problems that daytime construction would cause. While additional traffic congestion on Merrick Road would surely result from daytime work, the people most severely affected by the traffic problems are those who live closest to the work area. We would very much prefer to suffer daily traffic jams on Merrick Road in favor of the severe sleep deprivation that has plagued our families for over a week now. Initially, the Permits Department appeared willing to work with suffering residents and promised to reassess the project and determine whether some or all of the work could be moved to the daytime. Unfortunately, the representative from that office who had been the point of contact for residents urging that reassessment left for vacation last week before discussing his findings with us. This could not have been more disheartening to families whose children are not sleeping at night.

We accept that at least some of this work must be done at night. However, not all of the work has been so invasive as to require the closure of more than a single lane for up to three blocks on the westbound side of Merrick Road. In point of fact, area residents observed a line of Verizon trucks on the eastbound side of precisely the same stretch of road occupying the same amount of space during a daytime project conducted by their crews. The impact to traffic did not seem particularly severe. Further, we see no reason for why even weekend work must be done at night, as has been the case. Today, Veteran’s Day, would seem to be another opportunity to allow residents and their families a brief reprieve from their nightly sleepless torture. Alas, the overnight schedule remains rigid.

Calls to the County Department of Public Works, the office of District 7 Legislator Howard Kopel and even the local media in attempt to see even some amount of this work moved to the daytime have proven futile efforts.

This is insanity.

Soon the work will move past our stretch of Merrick Road and a new section of residents west of our area will face this nightmare. Most probably have no idea what hell is headed their way.