By Jim McGaw

PORTSMOUTH — Members of the Seinfeld clan famously advised, “You gotta have a buffer!” when it came to living hundreds of miles away from annoying friends or family members.

A different type of buffer is gone from some local roads and highways, however, leading to an increase in traffic noise.

Rhode Island Energy (RIE) is modernizing the local transmission infrastructure by installing new steel poles that are, on average, 17.5 feet taller than the previous ones. Due to the removal of vegetation, however, many residents in the vicinity of the work have been complaining of noise from Route 24, particularly from the jake brakes of diesel-engined trucks.

“When trucks come up the bridge, they jake all the way to the West Main Road exit,” Mil Kinsella of Narragansett Bouleva

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