Park Service: Environmental Study Backs Underground Plan
May 1, 2002
The National Park Service has reaffirmed its plan to replace the concrete barriers around the Washington Monument with an underground visitors center and tunnel, saying an environmental study shows the underground plan is the best option for "securing" the landmark.
Judy Scott Feldman, President of the National Coalition to Save Our Mall, said the study was inadequate and warned that building the elaborate system of tunnels and other underground structures could disturb the water table around the monument, possibly destabilizing it.
Feldman also said the Park Service refused to supply the research documents on which it based its conclusion, despite repeated requests.
"They have come to their own conclusion that everything is fine, and the public still has not seen what the facts are," she said.
The Park Service plan calls for two stone-walled, 12-foot-wide sunken walkways to replace the concrete Jersey barriers that have surrounded the monument since 1998. Visitors would have to walk through a 400-foot-long tunnel to an underground visitors center.
Construction could begin this fall and be finished by 2004, the Park Service said, assuming federal review panels approve the plan.
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