'Hill' residents say highway expansion encroaching on lives

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Ten years into their dream home in 1968, the Valli family had to move the house 40 feet to make way for Interstate 44, which took 100 homes as it divided the city's famed Italian neighborhood known as "The Hill."

Over the years, the family was among those who begged the Missouri Department of Transportation to plant trees to block the sound of incessant vehicle traffic.

But the noise hasn't stopped. Now, it's about to get worse.

MoDOT is building a second left-turn/acceleration lane onto the 1/2-mile ribbon of eastbound I-44 that fronts The Hill neighborhood from Hampton Avenue to Macklind Avenue. The second, parallel lane means I-44 will encroach another 8 feet onto the neighborhood before it tapers back into the traffic flow.

Residents, backed by neighborhood leaders and Alderman Joe Vollmer, have asked MoDOT to construct a wall to block out noise. But the state says the project doesn't qualify.

Residents haven't ruled out a lawsuit seeking a sound study that they say would surely prove some kind of noise abatement is needed.

The Hill, where baseball legends Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up, is the city's last viable ethnic neighborhood. It is a collection of quiet and tidy residential streets of brick bungalows and shotgun houses, anchored by the local Catholic church, St. Ambrose, and peppered with Italian bakeries, grocers and restaurants.

Forty years ago, the Hill fought construction of the interstate, which divided the Hill's northern tip from the rest of the neighborhood. Residents successfully fought for a highway overpass to bridge the community.

Hill residents say noise has gotten worse as traffic has increased. In January, motorists began using a temporary fifth lane on I-44 to accommodate traffic routed from a partial shutdown of parallel Interstate 64.

Jim Wehmeier, 62, said he and his wife moved into her childhood home on the Hill in 1971 when the area where the highway stands today was a "nice and quiet" green field.

He said the noise has moved him out of his own bedroom and onto the couch. He estimates the highway noise has devalued his property by $20,000.

"The neighborhood is great but we had to put up a fence around our yard just so we could hear ourselves talk," he said.

Vollmer called the latest expansion plan and MoDOT's failure to inform residents "a blatant disregard for the neighborhood."

"This highway displaced thousands of individuals and business owners," said Tom Stremlau, president of Hill 2000 Inc., a neighborhood organization. "And they are the same people impacted by this.

"MoDOT wanted to sneak this project through, but you can't do that when it affects residences," Stremlau said. "MoDOT is encroaching on a way of life."

MoDOT area engineer Deanna Venker said the agency was not required by federal law to conduct a sound study for this project, unlike, for example, if it was building a through lane on the interstate.

Venker said the state would consider constructing a wall or some other form of noise abatement -- sharing costs with the city -- if it could acquire extra money through congressional earmarks. She estimated the cost at $600,000, not including the price of the sound study.

Venker said MoDOT did not hold a public meeting to alert residents to the project but did inform a city board that handles transportation matters.

"The fact that I-44 divided their neighborhood weighs heavily on them," she said.

It certainly weighs heavily on Gena Valli, 50, whose parents raised nine children in the same house.

On New Year's Eve, a motorist drove off the highway and stumbled through Valli's yard and onto the driveway, leaving a trail of blood.

"We don't even know if he made it," Valli said.

Four weeks ago, at 1:20 a.m. on a Saturday, neighbors say they were jolted awake by the headache-splitting sound of jackhammers commencing work on a highway bridge extension just feet from their house.

The racket sent 74-year-old Joan LaFerla running down the street in her night clothes and slippers screaming profanities at the MoDOT work crew.

"I got so mad, I really blew it," LaFerla recalled. "I told them, 'you gotta stop doing this. This is a quiet neighborhood. We were all sleeping."'