After three weeks of putting up with it, Ms Hart has had enough.
"It's the noise, essentially, that's just unbearable," Ms Hart said. She has soundproofed her inner-city apartment, including spending $28,000 on soundproof glass, to block out all noise below 70 decibels but that's not enough to keep out the roadworks.
She understands that the work must be done, and even agrees that it could not be done during the day, but why could it not be done in the early evenings or weekends, she asked.
"If they could stop it at 1 o'clock in the morning I'd be happy because then at least I could get six hours sleep till 7[am] because I start work again at 8.30[am]. That would be great but they won't, they've refused."
Northpower did not inform her about the work before starting and has been unwilling to give her a works schedule or compromise on when the work is done, she said.
Northpower yesterday responded to the Northern Advocate saying: "[We are] fully complying with our regulatory obligations and conditions of operation set out by the Whangarei District Council".
"Infrastructure builds like this, by nature, are very complex and unfortunately they do come with disruptions and require long hours to complete certain components of them," a Northpower spokesman said.
Desperate for some help, Ms Hart has called noise control nine times and lodged a complaint with the Department of Labour.
Noise control visited and said the level was within limits, although Ms Hart said they did not have a decibel monitor.
In a meeting after Northern Advocate interview, council representatives told Ms Hart that a noise control officer would bring around a decibel monitor to measure the noise last night.
If the noise was found to exceed 85 decibels, Northpower would be asked to adjust the time of work, Ms Hart said.
