The city of Madison Board of Public Works voted Wednesday to allow construction on the 500 and 600 blocks of State Street to exceed typical working hours next spring.

The construction, scheduled to last from March 31, 2008, until Sept. 12, 2008, would normally take place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. to reduce the impact of noise on businesses and residents in the area. After Wednesday's meeting, however, construction work will now be allowed outside those hours.

The 2008 project will include procedures that necessitate work outside regular daytime hours because of projects such as cutting pavement. After pavement is poured, it must be cut within 12 hours; otherwise, the pavement could crack. Another procedure would need one additional hour from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. to work on utility trenches.

City engineer Christopher Petykowski gave a presentation on behalf of the project to the board at a meeting held on Wednesday to discuss the issue of noise impact from the additional hour of construction.

"We have done this before and had pretty good success," Petykowski said in reference to previous work done on State Street.

Although the meeting was intended to be a public hearing, no one from the public was in attendance. Only one business owner so far has voiced concern about the noise impact.

"The potential extended hours of saw-cutting as requested [and] proposed for a few days during the course of this project could create a noise issue for our guests that I feel will generate complaints and could cause us to lose the business of guests impacted," Bill Wellman, general manager of the Campus Inn located near State Street, wrote in an e-mail to Petykowski.

Petykowski addressed Wellman's concerns at the meeting.

"His business is based on people sleeping," said Petykowski, before he went on to stress that the outside work would not go on throughout all five months of the project. According to Petykowski, most of the outside work will occur in the evening or early morning. Also, business owners will be notified ahead of time by e-mail of when the extra hours will be in effect so that they can alert their customers.

No other businesses or residents raised concerns about the proposal. The board voted unanimously to allow for the outside hours of construction.