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Minnesota's Dot May Break the Sound Barrier

As state transportation departments nationwide race to put up enough noise walls to quell the complaints of highway-side residents, Minnesota officials are entertaining a novel idea: tear some walls down.

As state transportation departments nationwide race to put up enough noise walls to quell the complaints of highway-side residents, Minnesota officials are entertaining a novel idea: tear some walls down.

The proposal is part of a massive redevelopment of the Near Northside neighborhood of Minneapolis, along Interstate 94. Decrepit public housing towers have been torn down and will be replaced by a mixed- income community. The developer wants to replace the 20-foot sound walls along the highway with less-imposing earthen berms, which would open up views of downtown and reconnect this long-lost neighborhood to the city.

Transportation officials are skeptical. The walls were originally put up, after all, because neighbors in the 1970s had complained about noise from cars and trucks speeding by on the Interstate. Even though the developer would pay for the work, the state won't let the wall fall unless the developer proves that comparable noise reduction is possible. Without that, MinnDOT environment planning supervisor James Hansen says he knows exactly what would happen. "As soon as someone moves in, we'll start getting complaints," he says.

Proponents of the plan argue that to wall off the new community from its surroundings would be to repeat a mistake that added to the failure of the public housing previously there. The developer is working on a way to combat highway noise through a combination of the earthen berm and creative landscaping. "We're looking at all the possibilities," says David Dumey, vice president of McCormack Baron and Associates, the developer. "We'll do it carefully. We don't want to end up shooting ourselves in the foot."

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