Hearing set on noise variance

The City of Renton will hold a public hearing Tuesday, July 7, on a request for a noise variance for work on the new Interstate 405 bridge over Benson Road and onramps and offramps near City Hall and Talbot Road.

Neil Watts, the director of the city’s Development Services Division, will conduct the hearing at 6 p.m. at the Renton City Council Chambers, seventh floor, City Hall, 1055 S. Grady Way.

Watts makes the final decision, although it can be appealed to the city’s hearing examiner and then to King County Superior Court. The City Council doesn’t get a chance to weigh in on the variance

The request is from the design/builders of the project and the Washington state Department of Transportation. They want permission to exceed noise standards on 353 non-consecutive nights during the roughly two-year lifespan of the project.

However, Watts said he will want more specific information from the applicants about when they plan to do the noisy night work.

“We will be looking at real specifics about noise for the projects,” he said. “If we grant the variance, then people will have a fairly good idea of when that would occur.”

A hearing originally scheduled for June 25 was postponed to July 7. However, an open house was still planned for that night, although no one showed up.

Information about the meetings was sent to about 2,000 residences and businesses which could be affected by the noise.