http://realneo.us/content/flyer-odot-meeting-noise-walls-7-1-2010

As you know we were equally concerned about this
>
> in Tremont, and repeatedly, but successfully fought ODOT's attempts to
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> concretize the community. We also think that walling us off means the motorists
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> will never know or see the neighborhood just off the freeway.
>
>
> ODOT engaged Councilpeople throughout the trench, which was why we had many
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> public meetings and were clear with our almost unanimous community desire to
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> not have walls.
>
>
> Let me know if I can help.
>
>
> Joe Cimperman

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Thank you Councilman Cimperman.  How can you help?  Please talk to Ward 14 Councilman Brian Cummins and let him know how you were able to get ODOT to accept a better solution to mitigate noise pollution, air pollution and heat impacts of I-71.   The solution seems simple to me.  Walls are not the answer.

News via Councilman Cummins:
ODOT plans to install even MORE walls in Ward 14 along I-90. %*^(&!

Hell, we're so easy right?!  I rode by on my bike today and that stretch of highway is now nicely grown in with trees, so here's what we have to look forward to in Ward 14 along I-71 and I-90. 

Photos taken in 2009 of barrier walls along I-71 near the airport.  Photo credit: David Wolfe.

 Walls:

http://www.mackconcrete.com/soundwall.html

Installation:

http://www.tglcc.com/aboutus.html

Meanwhile, Councilman Cummins--please explain--since you served on the Innerbelt Committee--why you DID NOT fight for the lowered access roads and alternative GREEN solutions to walls on I-71??

How do walls heal the scars that mar a community divided by an interstate highway built in the late 1960s??? 

How many trees will be cut down to put in heat sink walls that will erode and fall apart??

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Tonight, ODOT assured residents that the walls to be put up "won't" fail like all the other walls we see around Cuyahoga County...but there are no assurances or guarantees...I was also curious to hear the ODOT presenter mention that Michigan has suspended their Type II Noise Abatement program--why? 

There was also mention of the environmental impact statement completed for this project.  I asked for a fact sheet outlining the entire scope of the project.  I would like to see the names of all contractors involved and the amount of liner feet of wall installed at what total cost to the taxpayer including the tree removal and site preparation.  Knowing the soil profile for Brooklyn Centre--I would also like to see how this corridor will support the weight of 14' walls, especially given the base requirements discussed last night.

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Also at the 7/1 meeting, after an obviously faulty public process--Councilman Cummins, you met afterwards with a small group and you are now promising some of the angry residents yesterday that you are going to "undo" the decision made to not install walls from 39th St. to Fulton Ave. 

How is it that this decision can be so simply "undone" after your survey was admitted as the public process for the environmental impact statement?

It was announced last night that wall installation has already met federal requirements and will be completed by October 2010.  I-90 walls also proposed for Ward 14 section of I-90 are projected for installation in 2012...after the "public process."