The Massachusetts Port Authority is moving ahead with a new round of noise abatement for homes affected by Logan airport, saying it hopes to eventually assist 60 residences per year in Winthrop – within tight limits on areas of town the federal government considers eligible.

Massport officials outlined the plan at a Winthrop Town Council meeting last week, saying that at least 351 homes in town are potentially eligible for work that could include sound insulation and related air-conditioning systems.

Massport also gave the town an update on construction work at Runway 9-27, which is the Logan takeoff and arrival route that most directly sends planes over Winthrop. The current work on that runway is due to finish November 16, and another 75-day work-related shutdown is expected next summer, Massport officials said.

The work at Logan’s Runway 9-27 consists of building a 650-foot extension into Boston Harbor, filling about a fifth of the existing gap between the airport and Winthrop’s Coughlin Park, to create what is known as a “runway safety area” – a padding of lightweight crushable concrete blocks, on top of a new over-water deck, that would slow an aircraft that overshoots the runway.

The safety function means the platform is not technically considered an expansion of the runway, and will not bring an increase in its capacity or expected usage, Massport officials said after the Town Council meeting. “Runway usage is predicated on winds, which is what dictates the airfield configuration,” said Michael Vatalaro, a government affairs specialist at Massport.

Winthrop first

The noise mitigation program for Winthrop homes, meanwhile, is using a cutoff level for eligibility – 45 decibels measured indoors – that’s significantly louder than the boundary that the town of Winthrop generally upholds on all other types of outdoor noise, because that’s what the federal government has set for airports nationwide, Massport officials said.

“In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration has the sole authority to control all airspace, exclusively determining the rules and requirements for its use,” Steve Sulprizio, Massport’s manager for noise abatement, said in response to questions about the 45-decibel standard.

Massport’s noise abatement initiatives go back at least four decades in Winthrop. The new round is using money from the FAA and is intended primarily to help homes that received such treatment before 1993, agency officials told town leaders.

The work overall involves homes in Winthrop, Revere and East Boston, Mr Sulprizio told the Town Council.

“Winthrop is going to be treated first, because they are the most severely noise-impacted, against FAA guideline standards,” Mr Sulprizio said. “This will keep us in Winthrop for several years.”

45 decibels

The new round of noise abatement work began with a Massport application to the FAA in 2020. An initial pilot program to treat 10 homes – five in Winthrop and five in Revere – was completed this past May. The eligible homes are generally along Court Road in the Maze section of Winthrop, and along Point Shirley from about Harbor View Avenue to a line running roughly along Otis and Pratt streets.

Massport and the FAA use a detailed set of measurements and calculations to determine that eligibility for noise abatement. A first stage involves creating a map where outdoor noise is judged to be 65 decibels or greater on an average of day-and-night readings. To be eligible for the abatement, individual homes within such an area then need to be shown, during measurement, to have an average interior noise level of 45 decibels.

That’s not as loud as living near a highway, though exposure to aircraft noise of 45 decibels has nevertheless been associated with heart disease and other health problems. In its municipal ordinances, Winthrop generally prohibits noise of 45 decibels or greater when measured outdoors.

Massport officials said they’ve counted the 351 eligible homes in Winthrop based on their most recent noise readings, and expect to add more. Residents can use the Massport site at https://loganrsip.massport.com/ to apply for consideration. “We’re starting to get into that build-up phase,” Mr Sulprizio told the Town Council.

The new Massport abatement program in Winthrop does have expanded provisions to fund the installation of air-conditioning systems, with the understanding that shutting out airport noise requires closing windows in summer temperatures.

In earlier phases of the Massport abatement program, homeowners were allowed to purchase through-the-wall air conditioning units that the program would install at no cost. In the current program, the FAA is allowing central air and heating units to be installed as part of the treatment packages, Massport officials said.