When Heather Semple stands on her back deck and holds the telephone receiver up to the air, whomever she's talking to can hear the traffic on Anthony Henday Drive.
"We won't be hearing coyotes anymore. We won't hear the birds as much," said Semple, whose Arbor Crescent home is not far from where the Henday bends for Campbell Road. The bend brings the traffic closer to her home.
Despite the steady noise from traffic, Semple is thankful the construction phase of the ring road is finished, because the ongoing work racket of the summer months was intense. The compactors that constantly pounded the ground to settle the asphalt were the worst, she said.
"Rumph Rumph! Rumph! All day long. It nearly drove us insane! So I'm glad that's done, but right now, at about 6 a.m. the worst noise is the retarder brakes of the big trucks," she said.
Dust was a perpetual problem for many residents whose houses were close to the road construction over the last two years.
"You had to keep rewashing your windshield and changing your furnace filters," Semple said.
2006 petition
Semple was one of the organizers behind a petition that MLA Jack Flaherty presented to the Alberta Legislature in August 2006. She is certain the petition, which asked the government to change the alignment of the road so that it was further away from homes, was instrumental in pushing the Henday out further from her crescent.
"What happened is they were able to buy the land from the seminary and that pushed the road out about 150 metres. So instead of having a road by our back fence, it's been pushed out," she said.
Ash Place resident Sue Telford cannot see the road from her house, but this past week she noticed the increased traffic noise.
"It's deceiving if you are outside because it is behind trees, so you don't see it and you don't expect to. But there is a hum," she said, adding that she expects the constant highway noise will be less burdensome than a road with traffic lights.
"They aren't jump-starting at the lights because there are no lights and there are no trucks gearing up. It's just a steady flow of traffic," she said.
Derrick Harrison, who lives about a block away on Ash Crescent has also noticed the noise from the new highway but said it isn't a significant bother to his lifestyle.
"We do hear it, but I think next summer when the leaves are out again, it will be less. Most of the noise we hear is from the overpass on the St. Albert Trail," he said.
Harrison credits the lower level of the Henday near the Akinsdale leg of the road, as a plus for nearby residents.
"The noise is not as great as expected because the Henday is in a cutting so the sound bounces upwards rather straight towards the houses.
Semple admitted her family's transportation needs will be better met thanks to the Henday, but easier access to Edmonton comes at a cost.
"There is no berm and there are no trees. If I stand on my deck I can see whole cars. I thought I'd only see their roofs. But it will make it faster for my husband to drive to work on the south side and to the airport.
Semple is at a point where she now jokes about the upheaval the Henday caused her family, saying she expects they'll now get used to the road.
"Now we won't have to worry whether anyone snores at night. That will no longer be a problem and there will be no more complaints about dogs barking in the night. We won't hear them," she said.
