A jogger works out on a small track at Memorial Park, near the buzzing din of the I-10 freeway (the Bud Light building in the background is across the highway), which could be reduced substantially under a plan by state transportation officials. Karen Warren: Chronicle
By MATT STILES
About Memorial Park:
• City purchased: 1925
• Size: 1,500 acres
• Total yearly visits: 4 million
• Jogging trail uses: 3.6 million
• Estimated value: $1 billion
Source: Parks and Recreation Department
Stop on the northern side of Memorial Park, and you might hear chirping birds, the wind in trees, the rhythmic scratch of crushed granite under joggers' feet. Or all you might hear is the rush of traffic along the Katy Freeway — a disturbance the city wants to quiet.
Under a plan that would be financed by the Texas Department of Transportation, the city's parks department is weighing whether to allow a large sound-barrier wall in a 2,000-foot swath along the freeway between Washington and the West Loop.
Still in concept stage
The 16-foot-high wall, which could cost as much as $480,000, could substantially reduce the traffic noise in a popular area near the small, asphalt track and nearby tennis center, parks officials say. "It would make quite a bit of a difference," said Joe Turner, the city's Parks and Recreation Department director. "This is the piece where we're right on top of the freeway, with a huge concentration of runners and tennis players every day."
The barrier still is in the conceptual stages, as officials work to get input from City Council members and key stakeholders, such as the Memorial Park Conservancy.
Sally Tyler, the conservancy's executive director, said her organization is working with the city but isn't yet sold on the idea. The park's executive committee recently wrote Turner, saying it wants to see designs before passing judgment. "In lieu of a concrete wall, trees might serve as a natural sound barrier," she said, adding that sound could travel over and around a wall.
'I'll come and help'
Parks officials said adding trees would not have enough of an effect because there is scant space between the freeway and that portion of the park. A wall, which could be painted with trees on the park side, could reduce sound levels in that area by a third, said Rick Dewees, a parks department assistant director.
Some joggers at the park Monday welcomed the idea of a wall.
"I'll come and help them lay the bricks," said Garland Smith, who's been running the park's Seymour Lieberman Exercise Trail for 20 years. "This noise distracts from this place a lot." Smith began his run after parking near a quarter-mile timing track that's separated from the freeway by a thin buffer of trees and foliage.
A sound reading taken there by a Houston Chronicle reporter about lunchtime Monday showed decibel levels in the mid- to upper 70s, higher than allowable under the city's noise ordinance, which generally excludes traffic.
Avoiding freeway hum
The noise spikes to the lower 80s when tractor-trailers rumble down the freeway. On the west side of the trail, away from the roadway, decibel readings were in the 50s.
Otis Johnson, the park's tennis professional who supervises 18 courts, said the freeway sounds limit his ability to offer lessons. Customers sometimes ask for the farthest courts so they can avoid the freeway hum, he added. "We get people that experience it, and they say, 'Hey, can we move to the other side?' "
But not everyone minds.
"It sounds like a nice river flowing," said jogger Gabriel Lara, who's been coming to the park since the 1960s. "It's part of the surroundings." Others drown out the buzz with tunes from their MP3 players.
"It really doesn't bother me," Suzy Seeley, who's run more than 100 marathons, said after performing lunges on the track near the freeway. "It's something we've gotten used to."
matt.stiles@chron.com
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