BOSTON -- They're going up on the Mass Pike and Route 128: sound barrier walls built to deflect some of the roar of traffic in neighborhoods behind them, but the walls can take years to build, and in some communities it's creating a struggle between the haves and the have nots.

Sona Petrossian remembers when the noise in her Newton neighborhood became unbearable.

"The noise got worse, the pollution got worse and conditions got worse," said Petrossian.

Petrossian and a group of neighbors worked for 20 years to get the state to build sound barriers between route 128 and their Newton neighborhood. The project is almost finished.

"People are starting to open their windows and sit on their decks. We haven't sat in our back yard for 15 years," said Petrossian.

The Newton location where Sona lives is eighth on a state list that ranks the noise level on different sections of highway. When the state has money available, it builds the barriers according to ranking. There are 70 areas on the list.

"We look at the number of homes impacted, the speeds of vehicles and noise," said Frank Tramontozzi, the state's chief engineer.

"We only have limited resources to build those barriers. When they become available, we go down that list," he said.

But Paul Tosti, a resident of Duxbury Road in Wellesley, says Newton's got nothing on his neighborhood when it comes to noise.

"How can they stand there and listen and then go over there to Newton where there's no noise," said Tosti. "This is a noisy spot."

"If you were here and one of those trucks went by that throw into gear, it's like, you'd think he's in the house with us," he said.

Tosti's neighborhood in Wellesley is number 12 on the list, and in the design phase. But construction won't begin until money is available.

"What we do spend on barrier walls is all the less we spend on other projects, such as safety of bridges," said Tramontozzi. "That's not to say they aren't important. It's just a matter of juggling priorities."

That juggling is costing taxpayers money. $6 million was spent on the Newton sound barriers. It cost $1.3 million to build a wall over the Mass Pike. The state has spent almost $12 million on sound barriers over the past decade.

But Tosti says it's the state's responsibility to give his community back their quality of life.

"I think they are responsible. We moved in here and it was kind of noisy then. But now it's outrageous," he said.

Some of the barriers are mandated and paid for by the federal government. But that only applies when the roads are being widened.