"'Hush house' may cut noise at Michigan airport"

Monday, May 10, 2004

'Hush house' may cut noise at airport
By Joel Kurth
The Detroit (MI) News


Life within the echo of Michigan's second-busiest airport could soon get
a bit quieter as Oakland County International Airport's noise-reduction
efforts intensify. 

Within the next few months, work should wrap up on a $3.5 million "hush
house," a hangar-like, roofless building that will house jets during
maintenance at the Waterford Township facility. 

The work - and its accompanying roar - is now done outside, to the
dismay of neighbors such as Thelma Fleming. 

"It just comes all of a sudden, usually about 11 p.m., and you just sit
up in bed," said Fleming, 83, who has lived near the airport on
Maplecrest Road for about 50 years. "If they can quiet that down, it'd
be a big help." 

The project is part of a 10-year, $48 million project to quiet noise
near the airport. The effort is similar to work already under way at
Wayne County Metropolitan Airport, where the more than 10-year-old
noise-abatement program is now being updated. 

"The airport is there. The noise is there," said J. David VanderVeen,
director of Central Services for Oakland County. "What we're doing and
what Wayne County is doing is making the best of the situation." 

The measures at both airports are funded almost entirely through federal
grants. 

Last Friday, Oakland got $3 million from the federal government to add
sound-muzzling doors, windows and insulation to about 100 homes by 2005.
Within the next eight years, another 500 homes could get similar
treatments, VanderVeen said. 

The cost of the work averages about $30,000 a home. 

Oakland County also has bought about 55 homes since 2004. 

The airport, which serves corporate and private jets, had 276,153
takeoffs and landings in 2003, second in the state to Detroit
Metropolitan.


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