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Every morning at 7 am, we wake up to this noise with our beds shaking (not the good kind) and heads pounding. The consistent noise pollution has worn on residents of adjacent apartment buildings like Bryce Jordan Tower, Park Hill, The Phoenix, Hetzel Plaza, University Towers, and Garden House. We are the residents of east State College, and we are pissed.

The source of our daily frustration comes from the construction of a new apartment complex on Hetzel Street between Calder Way and Beaver Avenue. The noise of jackhammers and bulldozers has served as our wake up call nearly every day for the better part of two months now.

According to the State College Police Department, construction is permitted from 7 am to 7 pm, Monday through Saturday. However, this schedule hardly meshes with that of the surrounding students, many who go to bed just a few hours beforehand.

“The 7 am start time is unreasonable when the construction zone is surrounded by only college students,” said Jessica von Essen, a resident of Bryce Jordan Tower. She is certainly not alone, as the construction has dominated many conversations between myself, my roommates, and our friends who live in the surrounding buildings.

While I understand that not much, if anything, can be done to alleviate this problem, the fact remains that so much noise in such a densely populated area will cause problems. Personally — and I think I speak for everyone who lives in the area — I’m getting sick of waking up every morning to the groan of construction equipment and rumble of breaking rocks.

Alas, a call to the police will only result in the regurgitation of the 7 am start time, and complaining to the workers themselves over the deafening crunch of rocks and metal may prove slightly difficult. I’ve considered throwing water balloons at them, but I don’t see that as a sustainable solution. Yes, I’ve invested in earplugs, which do help to some degree, but that won’t stop my apartment from shaking like there’s an earthquake (ha, an earthquake in State College, yeah, right. Wait…).

Any ideas out there?