Tuscaloosa, AL Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)

Tuscaloosa addresses construction noise through an exemption rather than a separate permit scheme. Section 10.8-14(f) of the City Code provides that the noise article 'shall not apply to any construction activity or equipment operated between the hours of 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.' Section 10.8-12 defines 'construction activities' broadly as any activity incidental to the construction, erection, demolition, assembling, altering, installing or equipping of buildings, structures, roads or appurtenances, including land clearing, grading, excavating and filling. 'Construction equipment' is defined to include pile drivers, power shovels, derricks, loaders, rollers, pavement breakers, bulldozers, crawler-tractors, drills, cranes, trenchers, scrapers, pumps, compressors and pneumatic power equipment.

Because of the daytime exemption, the practical effect is that loud construction is permitted from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; outside those hours, construction noise is not exempt and must stay within the residential decibel ceilings of Section 10.8-13. A separate exemption in Section 10.8-14(a) covers emergency and public-service work, including construction directly related to abating an emergency or restoring essential public services, at any hour.