SHELBY TOWNSHIP (WXYZ) — SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Some Shelby Township homeowners who live along M-53 say traffic noise has become so intense that they can no longer comfortably enjoy their own backyards, prompting renewed calls for a highway sound barrier.
But who should pay for one has become a major roadblock.
Doreen Nied has lived in her Beechwood Drive home near M-53 with her husband for nearly 40 years. She said the noise from passing traffic has made spending time outside increasingly difficult.
Hear Resident Concerns in the Video Player Below
“I’ve tried to have people over, friends,” Nied said. “And you yell, quite frankly. You have to yell in order to be heard.”
Inside her home, Nied said the couple has spent about $10,000 installing triple-layered glass windows to help keep the traffic noise out.
Next-door neighbor Kimberly Zachmann said she has also spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to reduce noise inside her home. She said the bedrooms have noise machines near the windows and the home’s old windows have been replaced with noise-reducing models.
But those improvements cannot solve the problem outside.
“I can’t go in my backyard,” Zachmann said. “I can stay in my house, but I can’t go in my backyard anymore.”
Zachmann has started an online petition calling for a highway noise barrier.
Township, MDOT point to funding responsibilities
Shelby Township Supervisor Rick Stathakis said the township does not control the state highways running through the community.
“Shelby Township has no control, no ownership over any of the roads in Shelby Township,” Stathakis said, referring to state-controlled highways. “MDOT, on the other hand, they control the expressways, 59 and 53. That’s their jurisdiction.”
Michigan Department of Transportation spokesperson Diane Cross told 7 News Detroit in an email Tuesday that if the municipality pursued a barrier, it would be responsible for designing and funding the project.
“The municipality would be responsible for creating a design for MDOT to review and it would need to go through our permit process to be constructed in our right of way using the municipality’s funding,” Cross wrote.
Stathakis pushed back on the funding issue, saying Shelby Township collects about $24 million in annual revenue compared with about $4 billion collected by MDOT.
“They’re responsible for the walls, the sound walls,” Stathakis said.
Zachmann also provided 7 News Detroit with an email from Stathakis that she said indicated a highway sound study for the location would cost more than $40 million.
As residents press for a solution, Zachmann said the continuing noise could ultimately force her to move.
“If we don’t have something from the township or MDOT where they’re like, ‘OK, we have a plan. OK, we’re gonna do this,’ I’m probably gonna leave in the next two years,” she said.
For Nied, Zachmann and their neighbors, the dispute leaves a fundamental question unresolved: whether a sound barrier will be built along this stretch of M-53 and, if so, who will pay for it.
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