Quieting an Ear-Splitting City Noise
設法消除刺耳的都市噪音
By Sam Roberts

Carles Guillot, a 42-year-old financial services entrepreneur, was awakened early on a weekend morning by workers wielding a jackhammer to repair the roadway nine floors below.
42歲的金融服務實業家卡爾斯．吉洛特某個周末一大早就被吵醒，工人正在九層樓之下使用氣動鎚修整馬路。

“I understand the need to work, but it’s the timing that’s not good,” he said. “Jackhammers – I can’t think of a worse noise.”
他說：「我理解施工的必要，但時間點實在不好。氣動鎚－我想不到有什麼噪音比這更糟了。」

Nobody who lives in New York will ever mistake it for Walden Pond, what with its earsplitting police sirens and a cacophony of mechanical equipment.
住在紐約的人，身處刺耳的警笛聲和此起彼落的機械設備聲中，沒人會把這裡和華爾騰湖搞混。

Help may be on the way. While most contractors still rely on the clangorous pneumatic drills driven by compressed air that were invented over 150 years ago, some are experimenting with new electric jackhammers that are demonstrably quieter.
救星可能快來了。當大多數包商仍依賴150年前發明、以壓縮空氣為動力、鏗鏘作響的鑿破機時，有些人正測試新的電動鎚，使用起來聲音確實小得多。

City officials are close to embracing regulations that would encourage contractors and construction crews to switch to the quieter models – at least at night.
市府官員研擬的新規定幾近完成，鼓勵包商和施工人員改用更安靜的機型，至少在晚上如此。

“It’s a result of an outcry from the public,” said Alyssa Preston, deputy director of air and noise policies for the Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Environmental Compliance.
紐約環境局環境保護處職司空氣和噪音政策的副處長艾莉莎．普雷斯頓說：「這是大眾抗議的結果。」

Noise is the top gripe recorded by the city’s complaint line. The previous mayor, Michael Bloomberg, made an aggressive push to quiet the city, including a new construction code that mandated measures to muffle sound and restricted drilling hours.
根據紐約市民申訴專線的紀錄，噪音高居民怨之首。前市長彭博採取積極的手段要讓城市安靜些，包括一項新的工程法規，明定降低噪音的措施並且限制鑽地時間。

Most noise emitted by jackhammers is caused by internal parts, rather than by the drill bit striking the pavement. Inside a pneumatic, or air-powered, jackhammer, a piston hits a striker plate as many as 1,800 times a minute. The plate transmits energy to the drill bit, which reverberates.
氣動鎚發出的噪音大部分來自內部零件，而非鑽頭撞擊地面的聲音。在氣動鎚、或說是空氣動力鎚的內部，活塞撞擊撞板次數一分鐘多達1800次，撞板把能量傳送到鑽頭，鑽頭因此反復震動。

Hilti, a Liechtenstein-based manufacturer, says its electric jackhammer pounds the surface with more force, but less frequently, which helps make it quieter. (In a confined indoor space, the Hilti model recorded 100 decibels; the pneumatic one, even wrapped in a makeshift muffler, hit 115. Reducing the noise by just 10 decibels typically halves the sound level.)
列支敦斯登的氣動鎚製造商喜利得說，他們的電動鎚能夠更有力地撞擊物體表面，但頻率更低（一定時間內撞擊次數更少），因此更安靜。（在密閉的室內空間，喜利得的機器測得的音量為100分貝。氣動式機型就算包裹在臨時的消音罩中，噪音仍有115分貝。即使噪音只降低10分貝，通常就能讓音量減半。）

But the General Contractors Association of New York says the quieter jackhammer does not break the densest concrete. “In the heavy construction environment it just didn’t work,” said Felice Farber, the association’s director of external affairs.
但是紐約的營造工程同業總公會說，較安靜的電動鎚無法破壞最堅硬的水泥。總公會對外事務處長費利斯．法柏說：「在高強度施工環境中，它實在派不上用場。」

Still, the city has placed Hilti’s TE 3000-AVR, along with models by Makita, Atlas Copco and Chicago Pneumatic, on its “Construction Noise Control Products and Vendor Guidance Sheet,” with the caveat that the listing is intended for guidance only.
儘管如此，紐約市仍然把喜利得的TE 3000-AVR和牧田、阿特拉斯科普柯和芝加哥氣動公司的機型，放進其「工程噪音管制產品及販售商指南列表」中，不過也同時附上但書，指出這分名單僅供參考之用。

Jackhammers may not cause permanent hearing loss to bystanders, but they can impart a psychological effect, affecting not only sleep but also concentration and communication, said Dr. Joseph J. Montano, an audiologist.
聽覺學家喬瑟夫．蒙塔諾博士說，氣動鎚對旁觀者可能不致造成永久性聽力傷害，卻可能產生心理上的影響，不只影響睡眠，也影響專注力和溝通。

Where do they rank on his patients’ complaint list? “They’re on the top,” he said.
都市噪音在他的病人抱怨名單中排名如何？他答道：「排在第一位。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/nyregion/electric-jackhammers-and-revised-noise-rules-may-help-quiet-new-york-city.html

2015-02-10聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 莊蕙嘉譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版下