Fifteen years later, Cincinnati again supports noise walls

Cincinnati City Council has passed a resolution supporting the construction of sound barrier walls in locations where highway noise hurts property values.

The resolution is the result of more than two dozen communications sent to the office of Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, largely from Hyde Park residents living adjacent to Interstate 71.

It's a reversal of a 1995 resolution proposed by Councilmember Charlie Luken and later passed by City Council stating that no new noise walls should be built in the City of Cincinnati.

"It is in the best interest of the City for ODOT to construct a limited number of attractive, context sensitive noise walls and/or vegetative barriers and landscaped berms in order to prevent reductions in residential property values and to improve the quality of life for residents in our neighborhood," the resolution said.

To construct the walls, a majority of directly affected property owners would have to consent.

According the a Building Cincinnati analysis, the typical cost of a sound barrier wall is between $1 million and $2.4 million per linear mile.

Photo credit: "2008 05 15 - 1337 - North Laurel - MD216 approaching I-95" courtesy of Flickr user thisisbossi, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Generic 2.0 license.