Noise, Traffic Expected From Sewer Project

A proposed $9.2-million sewer expansion project in North Hollywood will generate noise and traffic congestion during the nine months of its construction, an environmental study has concluded.

“Construction noise would reach significant levels at points along the proposed project alignment and could disturb small mammals and birds,” the city report said. But the report said any disruption caused by the project, which is now scheduled to begin in 1991, will only be temporary and will end when the project is finished nine months later.

The environmental report covering the North Hollywood Interceptor Sewer project has been sent to the City Council, which has not yet scheduled a debate on whether to authorize construction.

City public works officials, who proposed the project last year, said the new sewers are needed to alleviate strain that has been placed on the sewer system by population growth in the area. North Hollywood is now served by sewers constructed in the late 1920s and early 193Os, when the population was far less than what it is now.

“Sewers are flowing above their designed capacity. There’s more people living in the area and contributing to those sewers,” said Bill Briggs, a city engineering designer.

Plans call for construction of 3.8 miles of new sewer lines, primarily along Cahuenga Boulevard between Burbank Boulevard and Valley Spring Lane, and along Burbank Boulevard between Tujunga Avenue and Cahuenga Boulevard.

The expanded lines, which will be made of reinforced concrete and hardened clay piping, will be installed in cavities now used by existing sewer lines and other underground utilities, Briggs said.

An environmental impact report now circulating has concluded that the project will not cause any significant permanent environmental damage. But the report said construction will cause tremendous traffic congestion in the area, particularly along Burbank Boulevard.

In addition, the report said the construction work will generate noise, which will disturb classes at Toluca Lake Elementary School, Crossroads preschool and Cahuenga Nursery School.

Adult classes and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings that take place at Toluca Lake United Methodist Church and services at a Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting hall will probably be disturbed by noise, the report said.

Some Sunland and Tujunga residents have expressed concerns that the sewer system expansion will facilitate further growth in the area, allowing the present population of 50,000 to double.

But Wallace Stokes, the city’s environmental coordinator for the project, said the community has already been zoned for a lot of growth, which will occur regardless of whether the sewers have been improved or not.

The new sewer is expected to serve the area for about 100 years, Stokes said.

City residents have until Jan. 18 to submit comments on the environmental impact report to the city Department of Public Works.