Metro vibrations

notjim · 03-01-2007 4:46pm #1

So my house is likely to be directly above the underground part of metro north. obviously this is great in many ways, we will have a stop nearby and, in general, I think metro north is super, it will have all sorts of benefits. further, i think the old system of paying people for the use of the land under their houses was nonesense, i can't claim that we would ever have used the land 20m below us.

i am however, genuinely concerned about the vibrations and noise, does anyone have any knowledge on this. i used to live in a large city with a metro, a proper heavy one and i had a friend with a basement flat above a line and the noise and vibrations were terrible, enough to seriously detract from the quality of the flat as a place to live, enough that my friend could afford to live there even though it was in a nice, central location. further, my house is kind of falling down anyway, it probably has the sort of structural problem which all being well would never concern me but will require serious remedy in the distant future. should i be worried?

Victor · 03-01-2007 6:27pm

The routes are by no means certain yet. It quite possible they will vary slightly from the indicated routes.

There will be some vibration, mostly during construction, but also during operation.

Depending on the nature of your property, whether its new and badly built or an old listed building, it is likely that there will be a slightly different approach taken to compensation for damage. Generally the principal is that the developer pays. If you are aware of anything in the short term that could cause damage before construction, you should have it fixed. If you suspect construction will cause damage or exacerbate an existing problem, you need to bring this to the RPA once they get into detailed design.

I imagine operation will be considerably quieter than some legacy systems elsewhere, for example the bulk or Metro will likely be continuous welded rail - no clickity-clack.

For the Port Tunnel, something like 150 properties had superficial damage (cracked plaster etc.) while two had minor damage (both cracked at the joint of the original house and a later extension) to a total of about 1 million euro in damage. The properties most at risk were surveyed before and after construction. Using continuous tunnelling and smaller diameter tunnels, means the physical impact on buildings will be less, although there will be some nighttime noise/vibration.

dowlingm · 03-01-2007 9:18pm

I think for these kinds of systems some use of rubber-like plastics could damp vibration but on areas with curves wheel squeal could be a big issue.

murphaph · 03-01-2007 10:45pm

I think wheel squeal is less of an issue on a modern metro than a tram as the metro alignment can be banked into curves whereas the tramline must remain flush with the street.

Metro vibrations

Comments