Austin neighbors going ‘batty’ over constant construction

A central Austin resident contacted KXAN Investigates about the non-stop construction noise she and her neighbors have dealt with for several months. But she also says the city has been too quiet about what’s going on and how long it will last. As KXAN’s Mike Rush reports, while the city does have a system for notifying residents of projects in their neighborhoods, not everyone seems to be getting the message.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Whether it’s the sounds of birds chirping, cars passing by or a cyclist traveling in the bike lane, Toni Moss is excited to take it all in.

“It is blissfully quiet,” she said. “That’s a total blessing.”

Especially after the continuous curse of the construction noise she’s heard outside her central Austin home.  

“First thing 7 a.m., clang, clang, I mean, you know, it’s like, ‘oh my God,'" she said as she slapped her hands together mimicking the noise.

"To do it for six months continuously, it’s enough to drive anyone batty," Moss said.

For a few days in early March, Moss had a break from the noise right outside her home on Shoal Creek Boulevard as crews worked in a different part of her neighborhood, but for around the last six months, she said, the construction was unbearable.  

“It was literally metal being slammed into the street to try and dig up the street,” she described. “It’s boom, boom, boom. Like every two seconds, you would hear this loud clanging bang.”

“There are nine of us in a row on this street who work out of our home. Nine of us. We’ve all been impacted," Moss said.

The noise outside was so intrusive, she said, it carried into conversations she had with work clients around the world. 

“Literally, I’m on a call on a headset and the other person is saying, ‘What is going on behind you? Can you go somewhere else to take the call?’” she said.

One of Moss’s neighbors described the pounding to KXAN Investigator Mike Rush as excruciating and said she was in disbelief that it was so loud for so long.

Frustrated, Moss contacted KXAN Investigates.

“I wanted you to investigate what are they doing, how long are they going to be doing it for, all of the things the city should have told the residents along the street from the beginning,” she said.

An Austin Water spokesperson told Rush the construction is part of a more than $3 million, two-year project to replace more than 10,000 feet of old water and wastewater lines in the area. 

On top of that big project, since December, the spokesperson said there have been 10 emergency water and wastewater line repairs in the Rosedale/Shoal Creek neighborhoods. Only one, the spokesperson said, was caused by this project, the others due most likely, she said, to the deteriorating pipes the project is replacing. 

Austin Water said companies have also done emergency repairs on gas and internet lines.

Another of Moss’ neighbors told KXAN that although she’s a fan of city government and appreciates the improvements, the incessant pounding has been "insane." She said she had not gotten any notification about what crews were doing and how long it would take.

The spokesperson told KXAN Austin Water’s process for notifying residents of work in their neighborhoods includes mailing letters to homeowners; in this case one in 2020 and another in 2021.

Austin Water said it also had a public meeting in 2022 and said residents can sign up for regular email updates from the utility on projects. Twenty updates on this project have been sent out since February 2023. 

Austin Water sent KXAN Investigates records it said show letters were sent to Moss and her neighbors informing them of the construction. Moss and another neighbor Rush talked to claimed they didn't receive them. Two others told him they did. Only one neighbor KXAN spoke to was aware of the email update system.

Meanwhile, the construction crew made its way back near Moss’ house.

Austin Water expects the work there to take about two weeks and all of the project construction to be finished by next month.

“I had to call you to get answers,” Moss told KXAN Investigator Mike Rush.

Moss said she reached out to her councilperson, Leslie Pool's office, with her concerns about the project.

Rush contacted Pool to get her thoughts on the city's notification system to her constituents. Pool's spokesperson told him she did not have a comment.