Bob Hope Airport to spend nearly $1M more on soundproofing

Bob Hope Airport officials on Monday allocated nearly $1 million more to soundproof residences within earshot of the airfield’s flight paths in an ongoing effort to reduce the impact of aircraft noise.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority approved $962,820 for New York-based S & L Specialty Contracting Inc. to soundproof 30 single-family homes around the airport.

The average cost will be $32,094 per home, according to a report on the project.

Five of the residences are in Burbank, eight are located in North Hollywood and 17 are in Sun Valley.

A voluntary curfew from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. is currently in place for commercial passenger airlines, but not for UPS or FedEx, which must fly in their cargo early to ensure it’s delivered the same morning.

Funding for the soundproofing will come from an existing grant from the Federal Aviation Administration, passenger charges and the airport authority’s general fund.

Improvements to the homes may include replacing door and window, as well as attic insulation, weather stripping and air conditioning.

Currently, the eligibility area for soundproofing encompasses 4,642 residential units. As of June 30, 2,224 projects were completed, 132 were under construction, and 47 were in the design phase, according to airport officials.

Officials are in the process of studying the impact of aircraft noise on areas surrounding the airport as they seek ways of continuing to secure federal funding for the residential sound insulation program. They’re being driven in part due to continued demand from homeowners who live just outside the eligibility area.

But because of reduced operations at the airport and the use of comparatively quieter planes, Mark Hardyment, director of environmental programs at the airport, told residents at a workshop in March that expanding eligibility boundaries for soundproofing “faces a very steep hurdle.”

-- Mark Kellam, Times Community News

Twitter: @LAMarkKellam