Residents in the city’s west end are expressing frustration that non-stop construction noise is making home life even less bearable during an already difficult time.

Daytime work began in the rail corridor near Dupont Street and Lansdowne Avenue in early April.

According to Metrolinx, the work is being done as part of the Davenport Diamond Guideway project, which will allow for expanded rail service on the Barrie corridor.

“It started during the day in early April, which was fine. It was loud, but daytime construction – no problem,” area resident Sue Raposo told CP24.com.

However things changed on Monday night, when a crew arrived near her home at around 10:45 p.m. and proceeded to work through the night, using chain saws, excavators and flood lights.

“I do have earplugs. They don’t work – it’s that loud,” Raposo said. “I can’t express how close they are to my window, they could touch my home. The house shakes when they’re excavating.”

She described the sound of chainsaws tearing through chain-link fences and trees all night as “brutal.”

Out of frustration, she took to Facebook and uploaded several videos of the work to a neighbourhood group.

“The night it happened I posted it and the posting blew up. I had a neighbour go talk to the foreman. People were upset,” Raposo said.

She stressed that the workers on-site were “lovely” and very sympathetic and did their best to mitigate the noise.

However she said it was clearly difficult for them to maintain proper social distance throughout the work, despite their best efforts and she questioned whether the project was truly urgent.

“I know the work has to be done. It’s just a question of sensitivity and timing,” Raposo said. “Just have some sensitivity that people are literally stuck in their homes 24 hours a day. There’s no reprieve from it.

“Tensions are high, people are nervous about what’s going on. Either they’re working and trying to hold it all together or they’re not working and they’re worried about that. And then to have sleep affected on top of it, it just makes a bad situation much worse.”

She said she’s trying her best to get through the night using “every white noise machine you can possibly imagine” for herself, her partner and their seven-year-old son.

“My partner and I are both trying to work from home and home-school a seven-year-old and it’s exhausting as it is and everybody living through unprecedented, challenging times. To add to it a lack of sleep just exacerbates the situation,” Raposo said.

Metrolinx told CP24.com that the overnight work was planned for some time prior to provincial emergency orders allowing for extended construction hours. The agency said that residents were informed well in advance of the work, through both snail mail and email alerts.

The agency explained that the work has to be done overnight so as not to impact rail service along the Barrie corridor.

“We continue to follow the province’s direction that transit infrastructure is considered essential,” Metrolinx said in a statement. “Our contractors are taking the appropriate measures to protect their staff and ensure their well-being. This is a very fluid situation, one we are monitoring closely. Adjustments will be made if required and we will proactively communicate those changes.”

The agency said they are doing what they can to mitigate the impact on residents.

“We appreciate this may cause an inconvenience to residents in the area and will do whatever we can to limit the noise and get the necessary work done as quickly as possible,” the statement read.

The overnight work in the area is expected to continue into the weekend and will be completed in that stretch by April 19, Metrolinx said.

While many construction sites around the province have been shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a provincial order allows work to continue at sites deemed essential, including health care projects and transit infrastructure projects. The order allows for extended construction hours and limiting of local noise bylaws.

In an email, a spokesperson for the City of Toronto said that government construction projects were already exempt from local noise bylaws prior to the province’s emergency orders. The city said it does not have a list of sites where overnight construction is currently permitted.