When UTA again started recording the trains’ noise levels, the loudest was 83 decibels, but most readings were in the 60-to-70-decibel range. In the summer and fall, they said trains were screeching as loudly as they do usually only during the winter. He said he had teams manually lubricating the tracks “up to four times a day” and said crews did some grinding on the track, “which seemed to help.”īut De Lay and others continued complaints for months. Todd Provost, then the light rail general manager, wrote replies saying UTA had quickly checked speed of trains with a radar gun to help ensure compliance. In January 2017, De Lay and a neighbor started complaining again about loud screeching and speeding by trains that amplified the noise, documents show. Screeching returnsĪ UTA administrator emailed her a couple of months later to see how noise was, and De Lay replied that bad screeching “hasn’t happened again.” The UTA rail project manager also promised to look into noise problems. Just before New Year’s Day 2016, House Speaker Greg Hughes - who is allowed to appoint one member to the 16-member UTA Board - announced he was naming De Lay as a trustee.ĭocuments show she complained again about the noise the January she was appointed, and UTA said it was listening closely - and promised, for example, “to have someone there shortly” to add lubricant after a complaint. In 2015, the year before De Lay’s board appointment, documents show that UTA adopted a new “standard operating procedure” for the curve at 400 West and 200 South that included requiring manually lubricating the tracks there about every three hours from 5:30 a.m.
But residents complained that efforts were haphazard.
Correspondence shows that UTA said it was trying to reduce noise, including softening chimes on trains and attempting to grease tracks during cold weather, when screeching was the worst. Her complaints - and those from neighbors - continued for years. “As my life has become a living hell from TRAX noise in the winter, I’m going to make sure the word gets out to all the future neighborhoods who will be experiencing TRAX in the next few years … that TRAX is noisy, it’s not monitored regularly, and UTA does not make good neighbors.” My quality of life is suffering immensely,” she wrote. She said UTA had promised to oil the tracks, but it was not happening regularly - so she vowed to complain to the mayor’s office, the health department and on social media. I know, I’ve been home 95 percent of the last four days and the noise is only worse,” De Lay wrote. “UTA has done nothing about the TRAX squeal. Jennifer Seelig, D-Salt Lake City, who in turn asked UTA to address the concern. In one early example, De Lay wrote to then-state Rep.
Babs De Lay and fellow members of the Utah Transit Authority Board discussed logistics of the controversial UTA Clearfield land deal during their open meeting, Wednesday, April 26, 2017.ĭe Lay declined comment, relaying word Friday through UTA that she was unavailable because she is in the process of moving her mother to Florida.Īfter The Salt Lake Tribune received a tip, it filed an open-records request for UTA documents related to De Lay’s complaints and the agency’s noise-reduction efforts.
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