Say What? Noise Complaint Stops Lifeguard Headquarters Construction

A single noise complaint filed at the end of last week has stopped part of the construction of the new lifeguard headquarters at Main Beach.

Work is still continuing on the site, according to Senior Project Manager Joe Webber, but the noisier parts have been halted for the time being. It isn't yet known when this part of the project will resume, according to Wade Brown, who is directing the $5.6 million project for the city.

The main point of the unnamed person's annoyance is the installation of sheet piling shoring. Essentially, these are large steel segments which must be installed via a loud hammering process, which also creates a lot of vibration, hence the complaint.

Twenty feet of this sheet piling shoring needs to be installed parallel to the sewer line that serves the new Main Beach sewer lift station, which itself was a long construction project that finished over the summer.

"Due to excessive vibration and noise from the sheet piling shoring process, work on this portion of the shoring project was stopped for re-evaluation of the contractor’s methods," said a statement released today from the office of Laguna Beach City Manager John Pietig. "This work stoppage will most likely result in the project falling slightly behind schedule. Alternative methods for the future backfill process are being investigated to bring the project back on schedule."

"City staff was on site at the beginning of the sheet piling shoring process," says Brown. "Staff prudently shut down the process within the first hour of the start, primarily due to the excessive vibration, and in part due to [the] neighbor’s complaint. We are unsure of any cost impacts."

"We didn't have to do anything," Webber tells Patch. "It was a neighborly thing."