New Enclosure To Reduce Noise Around Metro Airport

ROMULUS (WWJ) - It's something residents near at Detroit Metro Airport have been waiting and hoping for – a little more peace and quiet.

Airport officials on Tuesday cut the ribbon to a run-up enclosure where jetliners can test their engines following repairs and have the resulting noise absorbed by the three-sided, open-air enclosure.

Romulus Mayor Alan Lambert said they'd get over 700 complaints a year about airport noise that they couldn't do anything about.

"You know four or five o'clock in the morning is what they usually do this stuff and it's just terribly loud.  You want to sleep with your windows open it's for sure going to wake you up – and it did," said Lambert.  "But now it's going to cut it down to the amount where, I think, windows open; maybe hear a little something.  Windows closed; you shouldn't hear anything at all."

The ground run-up enclosure is a three-sided, open-air acoustically designed structure that absorbs the noise from jet engine testing.  Following repairs, these run-ups generate noise the equivalent to take-offs that can last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour.

Before the enclosure, airplanes performed their run-ups in areas near runways that were out in the open.

Don Bergin of Blast deflectors, the company that designed the structure, said residents will appreciate the difference.

"Without a facility like this you would definitely notice a ground run-up in the community," said Bergin.  "With a facility like this, if you notice it at all it's almost not going to be audible."

The enclosure deflects the exhaust upward, rather than outward into the surrounding communities.