1-40 Route Through Park Still Must Cross 11Fs1 by WENDELL POTTER the Plazas, Would Actually Add to the Es :'"'Y' the Press-Sclmlt•R Bure•U Thetics of the Park
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'/)" · ) .-/Al-i- ~. <t- ~"- 1UL -:_ -<- f;_ -£ ~~ - 3 -;!_j--77 -1-40 Route Through Park Still Must Cross 11fs1 By WENDELL POTTER the plaZas, would actually add to the es :'"'y' The Press-Sclmlt•r Bure•u thetics of the park. It would even add to WASHINGTON - Tennessee Transpor rather than detract from the Overton Park tation Commissioner Eddie Shaw says zoo, he said. · bulldozers could be cutting a path through Blanton said he told Adams that there is . Overton Park for Interstate 40 in two an "outcry" in Memphis for the highway's years - if the U.S. Department of Tran completion and that less than 2 per cent sportation says "start digging" and the of the citizens opposes it. environmentalists soon lose their final · battle in the courts. Sen. Jim Sasser said he too believes the · Those are the same two big "ifs" that plan is a good one and should be accepted have confronted Tennessee transportation by Adams. Those comments were echoed :officials for the past 22 years. by Reps. Robin Beard and Ed Jones, But there are indications now that I-40 Mayors Wyeth Chandler and Ray Nixon, will be completed before too many more and City Council ·chairman Oscar Edmonds . years, ~the taxpayers of Tennessee . have to pay for the short but incredibly Adams .. who is the fifth DOT secretary ' expensive interstate gap in the heart of to study the Overton park situation, ..de:... Memphis. · dined to comment on the merits of the proposal, saymg only that he woula exam- ~ Yesterday, two of Tennessee's congress ine it and make a decision within the next men, its governor and two senators, and 30 to 60 days. the mayors of Memphis and Shelby Coun The only other comme~ had to make ty temporarily shoved aside their political was that he was im ressed with the differences to prove to Transportation presentation made by the Tennesseans. Secretary Brock Adams that almosf Thev not only had diagrams of what the , park would look-Hlreout a 22-mmute sbde ·everybody wants the highway built show. - - - - through Overton park one way or the other. Even if Adams does approve the plan, the state still would have to face the envi· They went to Adams' office to personal ronmentalists in court. ly deliver a plan for completing the high -way that a group called Tennesseans for Whether the state has to pay for the .Better Transportation came up with to whole project or just 10 per cent of it solve the Overton park dilemna. depends on how the co-urts ·'(_iew the plaza design. That plan is a partially-depressed route If the ccurt rules in favor of the e-n vi - I through the park that would cost at least ronmentalists again, congressmen from 1 $33 million. Forty-one per cent of the 3.6 Tennessee would then try to get legis]f· l mile long highway would be covered by tion passed in Congress to "remove" t e plazas that could be used "for park pur 3.6 mile segment from tfie interstate sys- poses", according to Shaw. tem. It would then become a state proJect ' This is the same plan Tennessee trans and the state could build the highway any- ! portation officials submitted to former way it chose. ! DOT secretary William Coleman last year. Blanton and Shaw were hesitant to dis- ~~· · It subsequently was withdrawn when cuss that possibility but they Coleman announced that his under secre acknowledged that L"~ k1ng it a state tary, John Barnum, would decide whether project is one alter;' qtive - - ;:-::sibly the the plan was acceptable. only alternative. I Barnum, it was feared, was too much of "We don't even want to think aboP! that I . an environmentalist to give a favorable right now because of the co~: to :'ennes ruling, so the state withdrew the plan, see taxpayers, but it is : :-: alternative," hoping Coleman's and Barnum's succes Shaw said. sors would be more sympathetic. The plaza design was praised yesterday If the highway can be built as a part of by every person at the meeting with the new interstate system, the Federal Adams except Adams and his assistants. government would pay 90 per cent of the project cost. Sen. Howard Baker said he had never . If it can only be built as a state project, seen a better presentation. "It's time for the route would be straight through t~e this project to be built," he said. park - not partially depressed and noL Gov. Ray Blanton said the plan "is not partly covered - and would cost Tennes _only feasible, it's acceptable. He said it seans an estimated $22 million. would .take a minimum amount of park Twenty-two years ago, it would have land, and that because of the addition of cost $2 million, said Shaw. .