At Vancouver International Airport, there are many engine tests conducted through out the day as well as overnight. In order to reduce some of the overnight noise, YVR invested $12-million in its Ground Run-up Enclosure (GRE), which opened up two months ago.
Nearby Richmond residents believed that the GRE would be the solution to all the noise overnight, however this doesn’t appear to be the case, and residents are unsure why.
One Richmond resident, Neil Filipek, claimed that the noise was like having a weed whacker in your backyard. One night his wife had called the airport to complain about the noise and asked why the testing wasn’t being performed in the GRE. The airport employee simply responded that it wash’t scheduled, which got residents thinking, how often is the GRE actually being used.
According to an airport spokeswoman, Anne Murray, only some engine testing is loud, and the airport only chooses the loudest of engine testing to be conducted in the GRE.
Filipek believes that it’s unsure whether or not the GRE is really effective, and nearby residents will have to see what the noise is like once summer time rolls around. As the weather will be better, and windows will be left open overnight.
What do you think of the $12-million GRE?