Masonry Magazine October 1981 Page. 11
MASONRY SOUND BARRIERS
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"In a city like Flint, with one of the nation's highest unemployment rates, every opportunity to provide local jobs needs to be considered."
The general contractor for the sound wall project is Walter Toebe Construction Co. of Wixom, with Jones & Simpson, Inc., Flint, the mason contractor. The bricklayers are members of Local #12. Flint, International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen. The nearly 200,000 brick being utilized in the project, scheduled for completion in November, 1981, are being supplied by Michigan Brick, Inc., Corunna.
Limited Construction in Phoenix
The use of baffle walls in the metropolitan Phoenix, Ariz., area has been limited to date, yet planned expansion of the city's freeway system may eventually open up this additional market to the region's mason contractors.
"The lack of expressways in and around Phoenix is a major concern of transportation officials and lay citizens alike." explains Paul H. Rosensteel, who represents the Arizona Masonry Contractors Association in addition to serving as executive director of the Arizona Masonry Guild.
"The current freeway system, constructed in the early 1960s, is essentially one road: Interstate 17, running north to south from Flagstaff, which skirts the west side of the downtown area; then turns east for eight miles skirting the south side of downtown, and resumes a north-south route as Interstate 10, continuing to Tucson.
"The lone addition to this 'S'-shaped roadway is the Superstition Freeway-a spur running east and west off of 1-10 through suburban Tempe and Mesa in the southeastern section of the metropolitan area."
Planned to eventually total about 15 miles, the current seven-mile-long Superstition Freeway is the only part of the expressway system that adjoins continuous residential areas.
"The original 1-17 and 1-10 expressways cut through largely commercial and industrial areas, and neighborhoods with substandard housing." Rosensteel notes. "As a result, there was little pressure brought by residents who would be affected by the additional traffic noise."
The unsightly appearance of the resulting highways led masonry industry spokesmen to propose a beautification and sound control program featuring unit masonry retaining walls and flower boxes.
Construction of the Superstition Freeway amid residential areas, however, has resulted in the inclusion of slump block baffle walls along both sides of an approximate three-mile section. A decision is pending to expand these attractive and effective buffer walls along the remainder of the Superstition route.
Similar decisions face highway officials on work to extend Interstate 10 from the west into Phoenix-a 15-mile span projected for completion by 1990-and construction of an "inner loop," intersecting with 1-17, around downtown Phoenix.
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