OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Gene Lamprecht was one of the many people who attended Mayor Jean Stothert's final town hall Monday night, bringing concerns about his neighborhood.
"We deal with this noise issue every day, all day long," said Lamprecht.
In this part of west Omaha, 180th is just two lanes, but the city has plans to widen it to four lanes between Harney and Arbor Streets.
Lamprecht is worried about that because his backyard stretches right up to 180th St. He said he gets the city has a job to do and respects its process, but wants the city to install a sound wall to block out additional noise and protect their yards from traffic.
"The emotions that we have in the neighborhood are really frustrating because we felt like we weren't making any progress with getting people to empathize with our situation," said Lamprecht.
KMTV did some digging and learned the city of Omaha conducted a noise study near Lamprecht's home back in 2022, where it was determined that a sound wall was not needed.
But less than five minutes from their neighborhood, you can find this sound wall at 168th and Frances. It leaves neighbor David House wondering if his neighborhood is getting treated fairly.
House said a couple of years ago, a car crashed right through his neighbor's fence.
"It's a safety issue at that point," said House. "The sound wall would at least prevent that from occurring with some icy roads, and people tend to drive a little faster than they need to."
The city tells me it conducts noise studies based on multiple variables like traffic volumes and measuring the distance from homes to the roadway. The city plans to conduct another noise study before construction on 180th starts in 2029.
"We're just asking to be treated equally in terms of including sound walls in that project," said Lamprecht.
