The noise from the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) is “unsatisfactory” between L’Île-des-Sœurs and Central Station, admits CDPQ Infra. Acoustic grinding will be carried out on the rails by November and dynamic absorbers added by December, for a reduction of up to ten decibels. The organization, which however excludes the addition of new noise walls, warns that the work will affect evening and night service.
“For us, what is fundamental is to do it as quickly as possible,” insisted the president and CEO of the Caisse de dépôt subsidiary, Jean-Marc Arbaud, at a press conference on Monday. .
The REM will have to be closed “a little earlier” in the coming weeks to speed up the implementation of the measures, he admitted. Work will be carried out in the evening and at night, approximately five days per week. “That means stopping the service by notifying users and putting in place backup plans around 10 p.m. to have more slots,” says Mr. Arbaud.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Jean-Marc Arbaud
In a study made public this Monday, CDPQ Infra specifies that the grinding will be carried out by mid-November “on the entire section between L’Île-des-Sœurs and the Central station”, i.e. in the Pointe- Saint-Charles, Griffintown and Nuns’ Island.
The dynamic absorbers, however, will only be present “on significant portions of the route, located near homes”. They will be installed “gradually” from mid-October until December.
These two measures should generate a reduction in total sound intensity of 5 to 10 decibels at the source, according to estimates put forward on Monday. Such a reduction “is equivalent to a drop in the level of noise emitted ranging from 3 to 10 times compared to the current situation”, maintains CDPQ Infra. Grinding would absorb 2 to 5 decibels, compared to 3 to 5 for absorbers.
No other noise barriers
However, no new noise barrier is planned for the moment. The REM team claims to have studied this possibility, but maintains that “given the height configuration of the built environment, it is considered that this measure would generally not lead to any significant acoustic gain”. Mr. Arbaud had nevertheless mentioned in July, in an interview with The Pressthe addition of additional noise barriers.
“The system is made high, but the noise barriers are limited in height. In general, they are 2.5 meters and the rolling noise will propagate much higher,” offered the vice-president of public affairs of CDPQ Infra, Philippe Batani, by way of justification.
In short, “the walls would have little or no impact in limiting the propagation of noise. This option has been ruled out for the moment, because what we are aiming for is to reduce noise at the source,” he insisted.
At Action-Gardien, an organization which had mobilized in recent months to demand measures against noise from the REM, spokesperson Simon Paquette spoke on Monday of “interesting” measures. “For us, 5 to 10 decibels is notable and we still feel that they want to resolve the problem quickly,” maintains Mr. Paquette.
However, his group has difficulty understanding “why no dynamic absorber is planned in the hollow of the curve” of Pointe-Saint-Charles. “They justify it by saying that there are no residences, but it makes a lot of noise around the curve. We will have to monitor whether, after December, other measures are not necessary, such as reducing train speeds. »
“Less than 10” million
According to Mr. Arbaud, the noise-related mitigation measures, which are already requested in Saint-Laurent and Côte-des-Neiges where the REM will arrive by the end of 2024, “will not be an issue budgetary”. “We are talking about a few million, less than 10,” he illustrated. That said, it would have been “difficult to anticipate” that noise would become such an issue in the neighborhoods, says Mr. Arbaud.
Some seven sound level meters have been deployed in recent months to analyze ambient noise in the areas concerned, namely on Smith, Olier, du Séminaire, Sainte-Madelaine and Mullins streets, as well as on Ash avenue and Chemin du Golf.
On rue Olier, CDPQ Infra states, for example, that the noise increased from around 55 to 60 decibels with the REM. On the way to the Golf, it exceeded the 70 decibel mark. And on Sainte-Madelaine Street, it remained around 55 decibels.
However, measures taken by The Press with a sound level meter this summer showed that the noise generated by the REM regularly exceeds 70 decibels in Pointe-Saint-Charles, sometimes even the 75 mark. The situation then concerned Montreal Public Health, but also a good number of local residents.
Several citizen meetings are planned in the neighborhoods concerned, from Tuesday to Thursday, to present in detail the analysis report on the issue of noise.
- September 26: Pointe-Saint-Charles (at Saint-Charles church)
- September 27: Griffintown (at Plaza Centre-Ville)
- September 28: Nuns’ Island (at the Elgar Center)