L.A. Airport Program Puts a Damper on Noise From Jets

A little peace and quiet never came easy to Cecil McAllister and his family.

Talk around the dinner table stopped and the TV’s sound was cranked up each time a jet leaving Los Angeles International Airport roared over their El Segundo home.

“Particularly in the summertime, if you left a window open or even if you didn’t, you were drowned out by the noise,” said McAllister, a retired sheet metal shop manager.

But life became more tranquil for the McAllisters and 19 other families near the airport three years ago, when their homes were soundproofed by the airport as part of an experimental program. As a result, airport officials report, noise levels inside 15 homes were cut by half, and were reduced in the other five.

“It really changed our whole lives,” said 67-year-old Mavis Austin, who lives a couple of blocks from McAllister and who also was chosen from among 243 volunteers to participate in the project.

Encouraging Results

Encouraged by the results of the experiment, the airport plans to move ahead with its final phase--the soundproofing of 53 apartment units in EL Segundo and Lennox, and 16 homes in Playa del Rey.

The airport, which is required by state law to make efforts to reduce high noise levels in adjacent residential areas, also wants communities around it to use the technology gleaned from the experiment to start their own soundproofing programs. Federal funds for such projects became available under the 1982 Airport and Airways Improvement Act.

“We are not a soundproofing agency, and no one has asked us to go into their community and soundproof for them,” said Robert Beard, who oversees the airport’s noise mitigation programs. “We are trying to create a cookbook so they can give it to the chef.”

The drawback to the technology used in the 20 homes is that the residences are still noisy if a window or door is left open, and the work is expensive. In the 20 homes soundproofed in 1985, the average cost was $18,000.

The measures include replacing a home’s windows with double windows, each with thicker glass panes about three inches apart. Additional walls several inches thick are sometimes built inside the house, next to the existing walls. Ventilation systems are installed that do away with holes where noise can creep into the home. And hollow doors are replaced with solid ones.

Sharing the Funds

El Segundo officials say they already are busy putting together an application for a share of the funds, which are generated primarily by an 8% tax on airline tickets. Planning director Lynn Harris predicted that the city may ask for more than $7 million over the next decade to soundproof homes using the knowledge developed under the airport’s program. More than 4,000 of the city’s homes and apartments are affected by aircraft noise.

In exchange for having their homes soundproofed, homeowners must give the airport a navigational easement over their property, which bars them from suing over noise problems.

Dave Brown, an acoustical engineer with Wyle Laboratories, said more than 20 airports nationwide are actively pursuing soundproofing programs.

Los Angeles International, the third-busiest airport in the country, was one of the first. About 28,000 apartments and homes surrounding the airport fall within a so-called “contour” where noise levels are considered too high for residences, he said. In 1985, Wyle calculated that construction costs alone to soundproof the homes would be about $184 million.

Common in Europe

Unlike the United States, soundproofing of homes near airports has been common in Europe for years, Brown said. Those near airports such as London’s Heathrow typically are built of brick and have clay tile roofs to provide some insulation against noise.

While it might cost $1,000 to soundproof a home in England, a wood-frame home here could cost $8,000 or more, Brown said. “There has always been the question of whether it is (cost-) feasible to sound-insulate such structures,” he said.

The airport began its soundproofing experiments in 1969 on three airport-owned homes in Playa del Rey. The oceanfront homes were under flight paths and had been condemned by the airport because of noise.

The experiments continued on another 20 homes in several communities around the airport. In the early ‘80s, armed with the experiment’s results and other information in subsequent years, Wyle developed techniques that could be applied on a widespread basis without any significant change in a home’s appearance, such as the new windows and doors.

But the cost would probably be prohibitive without outside funding.

William Ostendorf, a 71-year-old Lennox resident, said he spent $6,500 to build his home 40 years ago. More than twice that amount was spent soundproofing the house.

“I think spending money on this old property is kind of foolish,” said Ostendorf, who moved near the airport when it was still known as Mines Field. Instead of soundproofing homes such as his, the airport should buy the properties and redevelop them for commercial or industrial uses, he said.