He admits it was a dumb move.

But photojournalist Nick Kozak says he was so exhausted he didn’t care. He hopped a fence in the middle of the night with his camera and confronted the construction crew working on the $1.2-billion Georgetown South rail corridor expansion near his apartment.

There was swearing. But eventually a weary Kozak, whose clients include the Toronto Star, retreated, frustrated that he would face a Saturday assignment with no sleep.

He went back to his home on Dundas St. West near Glenlake Ave., and complained to any city department that would pick up the phone about the noise and thumping that rattled his apartment all night on Friday.

It was the latest skirmish involving residents along the train tracks and Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of expanding the rail corridor. They are the tracks where the Union Pearson Express train will run next year, and eventually, they will carry all-day, two-way GO service to Brampton and Georgetown.

The overnight construction was necessary to keep the project on its timetable, said Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins.

“We have lost time due to the severe weather we’ve had and we are committed to keeping this very important project on schedule,” she said.

Kozak, who has lived near the tracks for three years, says he knows noise is part of the bargain. Metrolinx has been good at keeping residents informed. But in this case his landlord failed to deliver a flyer warning of the work.

Even so, it wouldn’t have conveyed the severity of the noise and vibration that occurred overnight Friday.

“I’ve felt aftershocks in earthquake zones and that’s what it felt like. We’re talking 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. — insane,” he said.

It won’t be the last time residents along the tracks have to put up with construction disruption either, said Aikins.

“We will need to do two to four more weekends between March and August though we aren’t anticipating overnight grading work, so it will be less noisy, especially since the ground won’t be frozen,” she said.

That comes as some relief, said Kozak.

“I think it’s a basic human right to expect to be able to sleep at home without avoidable disturbance. The construction was causing manmade mini earthquakes. When a party goes on for too long, the police come to shut it down. Along with other beeping and movement of materials, it resulted in a situation that made it impossible to even sit at home comfortably, let alone sleep,” he said.

Councillor Gord Perks says Kozak’s problem isn’t new. “There have been all kinds of issues,” he said, citing residents’ concerns about enormous noise walls, pile driving, construction dust and tree cutting along the tracks.

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That’s the price of building these kinds of massive infrastructure projects, he said.

“There are going to be problems,” said Perks.

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