The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 18

Guy Marsh Of 3399 Fontaine Checks To See That Beam Centers Are Just So On Connector Bridge William Faircloth lies Freeway Fences The Big Link each day The pump at the relay station near Thomas Street exerts such enormous pressure it has to be rebuilt every three weeks The expressway is being built along the Wolf River one of the reasons for the need for much fill An overpass in line with Highland is being built even though it doesn't extend that far right now The dredging work done when it flows onto the site Bulldozers then must shove it away from the pipe to keep the water flowing dowmhill and keep it from backfilling on the pipe The S555-million project is about 914 miles long from Chelsea to Bartlett Road Completion of the project including six traffic lanes is scheduled for December 1977 More than 116 million cubic yards of fill will be moved in various ways The silence of the morning mist is broken only by the sound of the dredge pipes The swirl of sand water and soil rasps toward its destination on the sites of the north perimeter expressway Wide stretches of sand are dotted with activity Each major north and south street will have an overpass and the eventual detour One major construction site is the connector for Interstate 240 north and south The major work on the expressway at present is the dredge and overpass activity The dredging is being done by Construction Aggregate Corp of Chicago The project manager is A1 Josepheson Material is dredged from the Mississippi River and pumped through 30-inch pipes all over the expressway site Construction men move onto the site 20000 to 30000 cubic yards of material TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ROBB MITCHEU This Old Campaign Sign Could Be On A Lunar Landscape Rather Than In Expressway Fill -v A Bulldozer Operator Works To Keep Dredge Pipe Sand Flowing Downhill.