What happen to my street?

In 2017 all of the hard work of renovating my home started to deteriorate when the Town of Concord approved a road construction permit for National Grid to dig a trench from curb to curb near the front of my home for a neighbor's gas line expansion. While National Grid did the original road work, they were granted permission by the Town who knew the conditions of the road, proximity of the houses and the heavy commercial trucks that would drive over it.  The end result is the equivalent of a speed bump and/or trench, depending on what National Grid's contractors did to "improve it" or how the asphalt settled.  

I live on Main Street in West Concord. The street is a town way state numbered Route which is functionally classified as an Urban or a Rural Arterial.  In recent years heavy (20-40 ton) commercial truck traffic has increased.  Main Street is approximately 10 feet from my front door.  On weekdays there are 100's of trucks that pass by my house 24 hours a day. This frequency has increased significantly in the past 10 years.  Large semi trucks use Main Street as a secondary highway speeding through my residential neighborhood with houses extremely close to the road. The houses are also closely built next to each other (This layout meets the Massachusetts definition as "thickly settled", which the Town has adopted "townwide" but never changed the speed limits).  Since the defect is curb-to-curb, trucks drive over it in both directions.  Speeding trucks pass over the defective patch which causes their rear axels to go airborne and slam onto the pavement. This causes an audible "boom" sound heard inside of my home.  These events shake the entire truck and by the time it is in front of my home, it vibrates into my home and causes my home's floors and walls to shake. This noise and vibration is repetitive all day and all night, 100's and sometimes 1000's of times per day.  It shakes my bed when I try to sleep, it shakes my sofa when I try to relax. There are no traffic signs warning drivers to slow down before the bump, which I asked for but my requests were ignored.  Even the City of Cambridge has acknowledged heavy commercial trucks vibrate homes, which is why they have enforced restrictions in their city.  

Due to my complaints, and at the request of the Town, National Grid attempted to restore the patch on Main Street at least 3 times with no success. The Town issued another permit around May 2020 to National Grid to install more gas lines, after knowing about the original problem I was having.  The Town's Public Works Dept told me they don't feel that it's their responsibility to fix National Grid's mistakes, therefore they refused to do the repairs themselves.  National Grid doesn't do anything special except rip up the street and repave it, the same scenario that created the problem.  Here's a video of their work.  Whoever granted the permits made a huge mistake because their decisions have negatively impacted the abutting properties.  I complained, I sent emails, I sent letters and I hired an attorney who sent letters.  I complained to two 14th District State Representatives, three Town Managers, the Town Engineering Dept, Public Works, Police Dept, and the Board of Health (see contacts page).  All of it was pretty much ignored besides random responses from the Town blaming National Grid and at times they told me to call National Grid directly (yeah, good luck with that!).  

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"Noise disturbance

Any sound or vibration which:

1. may disturb or annoy reasonable persons of normal sensitivities or;

2. causes, or tends to cause, an adverse effect on the public health and welfare or;

3. endangers or injures people or;

4. endangers or injures personal or real property."  

"One obligation of a community is to protect its citizens from adverse environmental influences. Noise is one of these factors, Noise has documented effects on people, they can be divided into three types. The first type is a physical effect that directly and adversely effects a person's health. Hearing loss and vibration of bodily components are examples. The second type is a physiological effect that adversely effects a person's health; heightened blood pressure and general stress response are examples. The third type is psychological that adversely effects a person's welfare; examples are distraction, annoyance, and complaint. The only feasible legal basis for a community's right to control noise is based on these adverse health and welfare effects.... Excess non-Occupational noise exposure, hearing loss on both public and private property, speech interference on both public and private property, audio interference on both public and private property, and sleep interference on mostly private property."   Noise regulation - Wikipedia 

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Let's talk about the roadway noise and reckless driving.  Heavy commercial trucks that drive past my home are insanely loud (caused by J braking, engine noise and bouncing over the defective pavement).  The trucks are not your average grocery delivery or UPS trucks, some of the semis are taller than the houses and based on their size they are at least 20-40 tons in weight.  The noise at times is over 85 decibles 24 hours a day.  I can no longer open my windows because the noise permeates into my home 24 hours a day.  Drivers in many different types vehicles speed and drive recklessly but it's the trucks that make the noise and shake my home.  I have not found a noise ordnance for Concord.  Although, it's typical for cities like Boston to limit the noise to 50 decibles between 11pm - 7am and the City of Cambridge: "REGIONAL TRUCK STUDY - In the Summer of 1999, the City of Cambridge enacted a zoning ordinance that banned through trucks from Cambridge during the hours of 11PM to 7AM."  There are statewide "noise related statues, regulations and policies".  I contacted MA DEP who enforces these noise statues, regulations and policies.  They told me to make a complaint with the Town Board of Health, because the Town is suppose to mitigate road noise (the State DoT confirmed that the Town is responsible for Main Street - Reg-9 & Reg 9-A - The last regulation updates were from 1949 and 1957). There was no change that had occurred by making the complaint with the Town BoH.  There is a state noise abatement for roads and highways but since Main Street is controlled by Concord, the state can't do anything.   

I've seen hit & run accidents, bikes hit, pedestrians dive to the curb to avoid being run over, debris fall off trucks and hit my house.  To perhaps alleviate some of it, I made several requests for the Town to enforce the 30mph speed limit. In December 2022, I submitted a Traffic Calming Policy form but I never got a response about the Traffic Calming Policy.  As a response to one of my many complaints, this time with the Town Manager and 14th District State Rep cc'd, the Town sent police cruisers out for one or two hours a day for about a week in January 2023 (where they issued one speeding citation - see data on Recent News page).  They parked in front of my house (video), which seemed somewhat intimidating.  This was the only time I've seen them patrolling my area since 2014 (not to say that they don't, I just haven't seen it happen).  That small presence is not going to remotely solve any of the problems long term.  Here's a small sample of a few days of reckless, aggressive driving (video).  After reaching out to the 14th district state rep in August 2023 (who then called "town officials" to discuss the problems), that same week the Town installed a 35mph speed limit sign in front of my house (it was 30mph).  So apparently, the Towns dishes out punishment for complainers.  Great strategy!  

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"Highway noise can be pervasive and constant; and can interfere with people's quality of life. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) aims to minimize the extent to which highways have a negative impact on the noise-sensitive areas near them through regulations, policy and guidance, training and information-sharing.

In accordance with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-605, 84 Stat. 1713) and 23 USC 109(h) and (i), FHWA developed the noise regulation "Procedures for Abatement of Highway Traffic Noise and Construction Noise" (23 CFR 772). This purpose of the noise regulation is to help protect the public's health and welfare and to maintain community livability by establishing requirements for State DOTs to analyze noise impacts and consider mitigation for these impacts; and by encouraging local planning, zoning, and permitting officials to adopt noise compatible land-use planning. As such, avoiding and mitigating impacts from existing and planned highways is primarily a State responsibility." Federal Highway Administration

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The State DoT informed me that there are no hazardous material restrictions on Main Street in Concord.  I assumed the Town would have have restricted hazardous materials to local deliveries only, but it's open to all hazardous material traffic.  This means all of the tanker trucks passing through my neighborhood 24 hours a day, with no serious effort to enforce the speed limit, using Main Street as a shortcut to bypass the highways, could also be carrying explosive or toxic materials.  It's only a matter of time before there's a fatality, a house is hit or catastrophic disaster due to the lack of safety (see my twitter account for videos).  Before you say "oh, that's normal, those trucks are everywhere"... um no, it's not "normal".  Boston has a hazardous material route. I drive through Cambridge almost every week and there are restricted routes and signs banning trucks everywhere including very strict HAZMAT routes, especially on the main roads that cut through neighborhoods. There's no obvious reason for a nonstop flow of semi tankers to be using Main Street, especially overnight when there are no local delivery points (besides one gas station that could be accessed from Route 2). There are no chemical processing plants, no refineries, no factories, no reason for hazardous material to take shortcuts through a residential neighborhood 24 hours a day. They're traveling at speeds of 50+ mph only a few feet from our bedrooms, living rooms, yards, driveways and other vehicles on the street.  I have a speed detector and most vehicles are driving at least 10 or 20+ miles over the speed limit.

Everyone deserves safe housing free of vibrations and excessive noise. In my case, the road defect introduced by the Town in 2017, is causing road vibrations that permeate into my home, and it is completely out of my control to fix.  All I can do is complain but no one is listening. Similar to their inability and/or unwillingness to enforce the 30mph speed limit. While individual drivers are the source of speeding, reckless driving and unacceptable levels of noise pollution, the Town government is the only entity that has the authority to control it and they certainly have made no effort to do so.   

How has this effected my quality of life?

People assume because I live in Concord I'm automatically an entitled privileged out of touch whining NIMBY (I have personally heard this, which is why I described my background).  I wrote about my background because (so I heard) "no one has sympathy for wealthy people in Concord".  I'm hardly wealthy.  I'm barely getting by on my weekly paychecks.  If I were truly "wealthy", don't you think I would have moved already?    My address is in Concord, but my residence is located in "West Concord".  Main Street in West Concord is a working class neighborhood, which might explain the Town's lack of response.  As I've slowly discovered, only certain people get preferential treatment here, and that preference is never directed toward lower income brackets.

It's now 2023 (six years later).  The noise and vibrations that permeate into my home has taken a huge toll on my health. I have struggled to keep my job because I call in sick so often.  My sleep is constantly disrupted.  I get about 4 hours of sleep per night because I'm constantly woken up. I miss a lot of work due to migraines, vision problems from the migraines, fatigue and chronic physical pain.  I am constantly on edge due to the vibrations and noise. I have anxiety and dizziness to where I don't have much of a social life anymore. Having no history of hypertension, I was recently diagnosed with stage 2 hypertension with a blood pressure rate of 168/100.  There are many studies that prove excessive noise and vibrations cause hypertension and other chronic health problems (Health effects from noise).  Despite not changing my eating habits, and from simply not sleeping enough, thus effecting my energy level and likely cortisol levels, I gained 70 pounds.  Up until a few years of this road issue, I never weighed over 135 pounds in my entire life, now I'm struggling with obesity on top of everything else!  I feel bad for my pets and my service dog.  The noise and vibrations startled my dog (who recently died of a heart attack) to where she jumped up and barked at the noises. This same dog developed a nasty habit of chewing on rugs when she heard the truck noises and felt the vibrations within our home.  My pets have developed health problems as well and several died within a very short period of time (around the time the truck traffic, speed and noise increased this year).  I've had three pets of all ages die in the past 4 months.  Two had heart failure, one had chronic respiratory distress and a forth (who is still alive) had a stroke.  Everyone in the house is chronically sick on a regular basis.  Update: within a 6 month timeframe of the other pets getting sick and dying, I now have a 4th pet (a cat) who was just diagnosed with heart issues.  If you include myself, that's 4 pets and one human with sudden heart issues, and in addition, a 5th pet who had a stroke all within 6 months of the road noise increasing.

I feel as though my home is becoming uninhabitable and I need to move but I can't afford to move.  I had a structural engineer tell me that there's nothing that can be done inside to prevent vibrations from the outside.  I settled an insurance claim to resolve the new cracks in my walls and ceilings. I recently had to pay $15,000 for supplemental support in my basement to mitigate more damage.  Even more daunting, my taxes keep going up.  For example, I was told by a real estate agent that this defect has devalued my property.  This year my assessment jumped another 16% and there's a new middle school that will cause another significant increase in what I already pay.  If I have been experiencing such negligence for 6 years, what exactly am I paying for?  53% of every tax dollar pays for the schools and 24% goes to managing the entire town (FY22 Budget).  I don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling "helping the community" with the way I've been treated.  I don't understand what the problem is, do the Town employees not get financial support or are they just lazy?  Either way, a disproportionate percent of my tax money goes to something I don't even use and I can't get what I do use fixed.  

I've heard people say "the street was there before you"... well, the road defect was not there from 2014 through Nov 2017 and my house did not shake with every passing truck, there was no explosion level noise coming from their rear axels hitting the pavement.  If this were present before I bought the place, I would have moved when I was a renter.  My house was built in 1870.  I'm surprised it's still standing considering the constant impact it sustains.  I'm really shocked how Concord who is so fond of their history is willing to allow a vintage home to be destroyed by their own negligence and with occupants living inside of the building.  Everyone deserves safe habitable housing free from unhealthy levels of noise and vibration.  If a defect is caused by a construction decision made by the Town or by allowing drivers to constantly break the law, it's a systematic problem or a poor town management problem, not the fault of the homeowner living within the proximity of this ongoing negligence and nuisance.

The neighbors I've talked to are exhausted too, but they just don't have time to fight town hall and they have lived here long enough to know the kind of response they'll get (or lack thereof).  A few of my surrounding neighbors are tenants who don't like the noise but know they can easily move.  Many have complained frequently and the ultimately moved onto a more peaceful environment.  The houses surrounding the road defect are becoming rental properties.  Everyone has stopped calling in about the road defect - at a certain point the stonewalling feels like abuse and there's only so much people can take.  Some are reluctant to call in most accidents or incidents because they already know once the vehicles have left (almost always a hit & run), the police will say there's nothing they can do.  I can see their point. I've become the same way and stopped reporting anything.  It never seems to make a difference and you're given an attitude "there's nothing we can do" or "nothing is happening the way you describe it" or "they're not speeding, it only seems that way" or the obvious lie "we take safety on Main Street seriously".

I no longer feel comfortable or safe living in Concord because it has been a 6 year journey of being dismissed over a very serious a debilitating issue in my own home.  A personal space for one of the few times in my life I thought I could feel safe. Several other very unfortunate events have happened while living in Concord that I've found quite negligent and shocking. I have made videos on those events that are on my YouTube channel.  I'm just interested in starting over somewhere else but due to the road defect and noise, I'm not sure that with a good conscience I can sell my home to an unsuspecting buyer. I feel trapped, sick, tired and hopeless.  I just want to feel safe in my own home again.  Everyone has a breaking point.  Mine is lack of sleep because it has made me really sick, and thus unable to function and stay on schedule like I used to.  When I am home during the day there's a constant buzzing sound outside of my windows, a repetitive "boom" from the trucks, tiny "earthquakes" and a nonstop rumble under my feet and chair, screeching from near-miss accidents, drivers honking for no reason and trucks J braking.  I can't even concentrate on my work... this is AFTER not sleeping well for years, and most likely the night before any attempt to work from home.  This has been explained to the Town but their response is usually no response.

This whole trauma inducing nightmare of feeling like my home is going to collapse has exacerbated my C-PTSD. The last thing I want to do is talk to, be ignored by, hear another "passing the buck" or rubbish response by anyone at the Town. At this point it's just anxiety inducing. They have an uncanny talent unmatched by none for blaming others and never taking responsibly for anything. Prior to moving to Concord, I don't recall ever having to call any city or town I've lived in for anything besides basic utility service.  I never knew their names or even the departments who ran it.  It's commonplace in Concord to call, email, call, wait a few months email again, call again just to be told "it's not my jurisdiction", "it's their fault", "you live in an older part of town" (meaning what exactly? That I should be treated subhuman because it's not an affluent part of town?) or never reply at all. There's this bizarre tipping point of hazards where nothing ever gets resolved without my relentless persistence for basic services (see footnotes for an example). 

Here is my twitter account @Concord_MA with recent videos. I've been constantly gaslit that there isn't a problem. Traffic is random, so if a person stands outside observing it for 10 minutes, they're not going to experience the full gravity of the situation. Since attorneys are expensive, their letters are ignored by the Town, and the chances of the Town resolving anything is low...  This is when I started recording and posting it online.  I don't know how anyone can argue that nothing is happening when the videos show otherwise.  I don't have time to catch every incident on video, so all can offer are samples whenever I'm home, hear a noise and motivated to save the videos (which is a small percentage of the time, because I'm usually too tried to react).  I have found an application to record the vibrations in my home and I hope to post videos those as well - the problem is finding time to do it. I'm sure there are much worse examples I've yet to catch on video. I'll just keep updating my feed as those occur.

What's next?

I decided to move within the next few years back to the Washington DC metro area, where in hindsight, the quality of life was much better.  I need to save money to move, which is why it's going to take several years.  I don't know what is going to happen with my home and mortgage.  If I can't sell my home due to the road defect which vibrates my home's floors and walls (who wants to buy and live in a home like this?), maybe I will have to default on my mortgage or sue the Town.  Once I feel better I will be seeking legal counsel to start a lawsuit... Not that I can afford an attorney, which is why I'm not sure it's worth fighting for.  It's sad that I used all of my savings and everything I worked for to renovate my home and now I'm looking at losing everything just to save my health.  Honestly, Concord is one of the most despicable places I've ever lived.  They have a socioeconomic bias to not help residents who don't have wealth or influence.

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M.G.L c. 84 Section 15. “If a person sustains bodily injury or damage in his property by reason of a defect or a want of repair or a want of a sufficient railing in or upon a way, and such injury or damage might have been prevented, or such defect or want of repair or want of railing might have been remedied by reasonable care and diligence on the part of the county, city, town or person by law obliged to repair the same, he may, if such county, city, town or person had or, by the exercise of proper care and diligence, might have had reasonable notice of the defect or want of repair or want of a sufficient railing, recover damages therefore from such county, city, town or person…”

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Please visit my other pages here:

Recent News (events in 2023, including recent communication with the 14th District State Rep)

Contacts (who I've communicated with recently)

How did I end up living in Concord? 

Road Safety 

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Footnotes:

Building permits - video, part 1 & part 2.  Here are a few videos on how I had to go all the way to the state to get a building code enforced and the lengths they went through not to do their job.  (You may need to watch the videos for this to make sense)   This issue started in November 2021.  It was eventually resolved a year later, only because the tenant in the adjoining unit didn't have electricity (because the Town didn't enforce the electrical code and allowed the unit's absentee landlord to rent the apartment in an illegal condition). Eight months after the Town refused to enforce the electrical code (July 2022), the tenant had to call the Town Board of Health.  A month after the tenant called the Town for assistance, the Town Board of Health and Building Commissioner issued a correction order to the absentee landlord, which was ordered to be fixed by early August 2022.  The electrical problems were still not fixed in November 2022 (the tenant STILL had issues with her power). I finally took the absentee landlord to court to get the BoH correction order enforced.  The Town didn't do the enforcement, I had to!