Hospital Near Construction Noise Sues Toll Road Agency

The clamor of pile drivers working on the San Joaquin Hills toll road is undermining the mental health of patients at a nearby psychiatric hospital, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

“The patients . . . are undergoing treatment for substance abuse, chemical dependency, depression, schizophrenia and other illnesses,” according to the lawsuit filed by Community Psychiatric Centers against the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency. “Some patients are confined to a locked ward and a number of patients are under constant suicide watch.”

The medical company maintains a private psychiatric hospital--Laguna Hills Hospital--near the site where construction workers are building a multilaned public toll road expected to be completed by 1997.

The constant operation of pile drivers from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day for the past two months, the lawsuit contends, has prevented the hospital from “maintaining a proper environment” for the care and treatment of its patients. “The operation of the hospital requires that the patients be afforded a tranquil and safe environment in which to obtain treatment and recuperate from any illness or trauma they may have sustained,” the lawsuit says. “The noise and vibrations . . . prevent (the hospital) from conducting its business.”

The suit asks for $100,000 in damages as a result of the alleged disturbance of its patients. In addition, it asks for another $100,000 in compensation for vibration-caused physical damages the lawsuit contends have been inflicted on the building itself.