Denniston Park NA

A Call for Sound Barrier Wall Involvement

Mar 05, 2003

Believe it or not, our neighborhood as well as Lyons Park neighborhood (Pioneer to 30th Street) share a history of requests to our legislators for a sound barrier wall that goes all the way back to 1987. We still don?’t have one and I wanted to find out why.

My name is Dorothy Antwine and I want to share with you a little of my background and what I learned while researching this problem. I work for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT), which publishes a report called the Five Year Construction Program. It lists all statewide highway construction projects scheduled within the next five years. Since our neighborhood is located adjacent to I-44, I decided to review the plan to see if any projects might be scheduled for our area in the upcoming years.

To my surprise the March 2002 report listed a sound barrier wall on the east side of I-44 from NW 23rd to NW30th, which was scheduled to be built June 2002, but as we all know, it did not happen. I visited with the ODOT Division Engineer to learn more about the background of this project and to determine if we actually would ever receive this much needed sound barrier wall. He informed me that in 1999 Lyons Park neighborhood along with Madison Elementary School sent letters to their legislators and ODOT, which included signed petitions requesting that ODOT build a sound barrier wall. Subsequently, Rep. Robert Worthen and ODOT officials met with Lyons Park neighbors. A noise study was conducted by ODOT in August 1999, which confirmed that neighborhoods surrounding I-44 were indeed in need of such a sound barrier wall. Unfortunately no funds were available.

In July of this year, the Denniston Park neighborhood association sent ODOT an open records letter requests for copies of all sound barrier wall correspondence for our neighborhood. In response, we received several years worth of correspondence from our neighbors, signed petitions, a sound barrier study, and response letters from Rep. Robert Worthen, US Senator Inhofe, and ODOT dating back to the late 80?’s. After reviewing these documents, our findings showed that for the past 15 years, ODOT has lacked the funds for this project. And now with our current economic downturn, lack of funding is even worse.

All this begs the question: Why do some neighborhoods surrounded by a highway have a sound barrier wall and others, like ourselves, do not? The answer seems to be in a change of legislation that has occurred. Our findings showed that when ODOT built any major interstates or highways through surrounding neighborhoods in the early 70?’s, it was not mandated that a sound barrier wall be included in these projects. In the 80?’s the federal law changed to read that provisions for noise mitigation are considered only when new construction or reconstruction of an existing facility is planned. When this particular section is rehabilitated, highway noise problems will receive all necessary attention.

So, that is the background on the entire situation regarding the sound barrier wall. It appears that without a lot of community involvement and support, we may NEVER get one, although most would agree it is badly needed. At this point we would like to survey what neighbors would be interested in becoming involved in this committee and how many represented before going any further. We are looking for neighbors who would be willing to participate in a public meeting with our representatives and senators, neighbors who would be willing to explore other funding options that may also involve seeking grants and neighbors to sign a petition. We want to hear from you. Do you think this is worth pursuing at this time, would you like to get involved and if so what would your level of involvement be?

If you support this concept and are willing to become active in a committee or have any feedback, please contact Dorothy Antwine at 943-6229 or DorothyAntwine@msn.com.