by Tyrah Burris

Beep, beep, beep. Crash. Bang.

That’s what it sounds like early in the morning at the heart of the University of Maryland, by the Adele H. Stamp Student Union. 

“I would wake up to the sound of jackhammers outside my window,” said Maison Holcomb, a sophomore international business and Spanish major who lives in St. Mary’s Hall, right across the street from Stamp. 

“It will wake you up at 7:00 in the morning, and I don’t get up until 9:00,” Holcomb said.

The university said in a statement that it is working with the Maryland Transit Administration to minimize noise from the construction and that construction work on campus is not supposed to start until 8:30 a.m.

But according to several students living near the construction, the construction starts much earlier. 

“The earliest I’ve heard them start is 6am but usually they would start at like 7:00 am…you would hear a loud jackhammer going at 7:00 am so I couldn’t sleep,” said Jalyn Mathis, a sophomore journalism major and resident at St. Mary’s Hall. 

Extremely noisy construction work is planned for time periods that will minimize disruption to the community, according to the statement. 

The construction for the Purple Line officially began on the University of Maryland’s campus in 2017 but Holcumb remembers construction in front of Stamp happening as early as October 2021.  

The light rail line will extend from New Carrollton in Prince George’s County to Silver Spring and Bethesda in Montgomery County. Five out of the 21 stations will be on or around the University of Maryland’s campus, providing more reliable transportation for students and staff, according to a statement from the university.  

Roman Kassaraba, a sophomore public health science and Spanish major, moved into St. Mary’s Hall midway through the semester and said the noise reminds him of living in a big city.

“I feel like I’m living in New York City but I know that this is a suburbia,” he said. “I’m not crazy about it.”

Kassaraba said he keeps the windows closed to block out the noise and goes to Mckeldin Library to study or uses noise cancellation headphones.  

The construction work in front of St. Mary’s and Dorchester residence halls is expected to be complete by the end of March, the university statement said. 

Hadiya Grier, freshman pre-vet animal science major, said the noise is bothersome in the morning, reminding her of her of an alarm.  

“I’m only bothered by it in the morning, I wait until it’s over, then fall asleep,” she said.

Featured image: A backhoe digs a hole in front of the Cole Student Activities Building, March 31, 2022. Photo by Tyrah Burris.