A proposal from the Texas Department of Transportation to reduce noise from the Hwy. 290 expansion project for Jersey Village residents has caught the attention of city officials, but the overall scope of the project falls short of the expectations of residents and city council members alike.

The proposal—many details of which are still unknown—involves building a 16-foot-tall sound wall along the south side of Seattle Street to the northern-most houses on Congo Lane. The wall would reduce noise by an estimated 10 decibels for houses on Seattle, but City Manager Mike Castro said the effect on Congo and Singapore lanes would be minimal, based on discussions with the city's noise engineer, Arno Bommer.

"It's good for Seattle, but as you get deeper into the community it appears there is virtually no impact," Castro said.

Castro said many of the hard details regarding the potential sound wall—including whether the city would be responsible for obtaining property easements, or for maintaining the wall after construction—were not made clear by TxDOT. City Council members determined that they would need to know more about the project before supporting or rejecting it.

Some council members, as well as Mayor Rod Erskine, expressed concerns that TxDOT's proposal was more about finding a way to appease residents than actually improving quality of life. Jersey Village residents have sent about 800 letters and more than 1,200 petition signatures to elected officials and TxDOT representatives requesting more noise abatement efforts during and after the Hwy. 290 construction, which began in 2011.

Jersey Village city officials and residents attended a meeting on noise abatement hosted by TxDOT in May during which they provided evidence—both anecdotal and based on studies conducted by the city—of the need for more noise abatement projects along Hwy. 290. Erskine said TxDOT has been largely unresponsive.

"We've done the engineering studies that show we have some issues that need to be looked into," Erskine said. "Now they want to build us a wall we didn't ask for, and we don't even know if it will be incumbent on the city to obtain easements through payments or imminent domain."

In response to past noise complaints, TxDOT has said it deals with noise abatement according to standards set by the Federal Highway Administration. Castro said those standards are not good enough for Jersey Village.

"TxDOT is looking to address specific points, but not much beyond that," he said.

Jersey Village residents at the Aug. 19 City Council meeting, including former city council member Mark Maloy, expressed a desire for more on behalf of TxDOT. Residents Bill and Susan Edwards said they would like to a more effective use of sound walls, as well as the use of a permeable friction-course treatment, or a rubber-like asphalt, as a freeway overlay, which would reduce the noise by several decibels.

"What they have proposed now is only going to affect a small amount of people," Bill Edwards said. "It's common sense that, if you build a wall, it's only going to block sound for people right behind the wall."