Sacramento neighbors kept awake all night from construction: "It's impacting my health."
SACRAMENTO — The American River Bridge Deck Replacement Project has been in the works for years but neighbors say, recently, construction at all hours of the night is becoming unbearable.
People who live near the bridge in River Park report Caltrans work happening during the overnight hours.
"No construction during the day at all, then starting at 11 p.m. and ending at 4 a.m., it's vibrating our walls, knocking things off cabinets. It knocked the water bottle off the nightstand last night," said Michael Hare, who lives feet away from the construction. "The lovely beep, beep, beep, waking us up all night."
Caltrans said the project was desperately needed to upgrade the infrastructure of the bridge that stretches over a portion of the American River and involved having to tear down parts of the bridge, install new bridge decks, and then put a bike trail along the river. They are supposed to notify residents in the area if noise is going to impact them.
"Absolutely not. It's happened time and time again," Michael said.
His wife Erin, who works nights at a nearby hospital said it's beginning to impact their health.
"It's been extremely difficult, no sleep and going to work 10–14-hour shifts," Erin said.
We took their concerns to Caltrans who assured us they are trying to mitigate the noise impacts as much as possible. District 3 representative Sergio Ochoa-Sanchez said they have received a number of complaints from people who live in the area and have talked to the contractors about the project.
"We are trying to avoid obviously major disturbances on the neighbors but sometimes, it's a little bit complicated," Ochoa-Sanchez said. "We already talked to the contractor today, actually, and we told them about this complaint that we received. We told them to either try to do things as smoothly as possible or try to work in some other part of the bridge."
The Hare family said this nightmare has been going on for years and they aren't optimistic it will be over anytime soon. They shared with us video from the night before showing large, heavy, loud machinery blaring just feet away from their back window.
"I want to ask them, 'Would you want this in your backyard? Would you want this when your kids and family are trying to sleep?' " Michael said.
Caltrans said they do not want to close lanes of the freeway during busy commute hours, but neighbors nearby said there's hardly any construction happening during the day, including times when traffic is not crowded.
"It's impacting my health. It's not safe for anyone to live like this, especially my wife who gets up and has to work a dayshift at a hospital where lives are literally in her hands," Michael said.