Opinion by Lucy Jackson
In 2025, I reached out to the city of Seal Beach with a simple problem: our neighborhood’s outdoor spaces had become measurably louder than what federal standards consider acceptable for residential living.
That effort grew. In spring 2026, a group of neighbors joined me: Louie and Jackie Gonzalez, Naomi Blackmore, Mike and Mira Georgy, Hugo and Stefanie Sanchez, Lisa Bode Heard, and Jake Gordon. The CPE Freeway Noise Team was born. Since then, our numbers have grown as more College Park East residents track our progress, share their data, and add their voices to ours.
We have built something neighbors before us never had: a record. Over two million independently collected noise data points across ten residential sites, presented to the Seal Beach City Council, and grounded in the Federal Highway Administration’s own noise abatement standards.
Here is the heart of it. Before the I-405 widening project broke ground, the 2015 Final Environmental Impact Report explicitly recommended improvements to Soundwall S1162, the barrier on Almond Avenue adjacent to northbound I-405. The noise study, prepared by Parsons, found the wall to be acoustically feasible and cost-reasonable: an estimated construc tion cost of $225,000 against an approved allowance of $270,000. The document states: “construction of Soundwall S1162 is reasonable and recommended.”¹ That 700-foot wall extension was never built.
To the best of our knowledge, after the project was completed in December 2023, a post-project noise reevaluation concluded that abatement was no longer necessary for our area. Our data tells a different story. Our community-wide average noise level is 68.5 dBA. At our worst-affected street, we have measured 73.6 dBA — both well above the federal threshold of 65 dBA that the government classifies as “Normally Unacceptable” for residential living.
We have met directly with City Manager Patrick Gallegos and secured the City’s commitment to develop a formal engagement strategy with Caltrans. FHWA documents proven solutions: rubberized asphalt, T-top wall caps, absorptive wall facing, and wall height extensions. Rubberized asphalt alone has been documented to reduce residential freeway noise by roughly five decibels, in a study FHWA itself funded. All of this is happening because a small group of neighbors decided to show up, month after month, and do the unglamorous work of collecting data, reading reports, and asking pointed but respectful questions of the people who can make a change.
What we want is straightforward. We want the sound wall approved for our neighborhood in 2015 to be reconsidered honestly in light of the real-world noise our community is living with today. We want Caltrans to treat quiet pavement as a real option for our segment of freeway. And we want a seat at the table for every decision that affects how our neighborhood sounds and feels.
We understand growth. A freeway expansion serving hundreds of thousands of drivers is a regional achievement. But progress cannot come at the expense of our health, our peace, and our right to enjoy our own outdoor spaces. A faster commute for people passing through should not mean an unacceptably louder life for the people who live here.
This is where we need you. Visit cpenoisemap.netlify.app to see our data, follow our progress, and fill out our community survey. If you live in College Park East, come to a city council meeting. Add your voice when we ask the City or Caltrans to act. There is a record that College Park East fought hard when the I-405 expansion was first negotiated. What was raised and argued for over a decade ago is still on the table. We are not asking for a favor. We are asking for remediation for what progress has taken from our neighborhood.
Our community deserves to be heard, in more ways than one.
Lucy Jackson wrote this column on behalf of the CPE Freeway Noise Team.
¹ I-405 Improvement Project Final Environmental Impact Report / Environmental Impact Statement (Final EIR/EIS), Chapter 3, Section 3.2.7, pp. 3.2.7-44 to 3.2.7-45. March 2015. Noise study prepared by Parsons. Filed April 2, 2015 with the California State Clearinghouse, SCH Number 2009091001. Lead agency: Caltrans District 12. Estimated construction cost of Sound Wall S1162: $225,000. Approved reasonable allowance: $270,000.