HOUSTON -- Memorial Park is a favorite spot to run, golf or just escape the noise. But some are worried that a nearby expansion of a major highway could destroy the park's tranquility and they are making some real noise about it, the KPRC Local 2 Troubleshooters reported Monday.

"Memorial Park is Houston's largest urban park," resident Robin Holzer said. "We've got 1,500 acres of natural woods here and recreation facilities. Noise is already beginning to be a problem in the park."

The noise she referred to comes from highway construction along the Loop 610 and the Interstate 10 interchange.

Holzer said it's only going to get worse once the project, which includes a 75-foot-high ramp alongside the park, is finished.

"The problem with that is that a car makes so much noise at ground level, it makes a whole lot more noise when you put it up in the air, cause the noises carries way over into the park," Holzer said.

Federal law says Memorial Park is entitled to strict protection from noise coming from federal highways. But some Houstonians say the Texas Department of Transportation found a way around the regulations and they are going to court to prove it.

Bill Ware and his wife, Carol, have filed a lawsuit against TxDOT and the Federal Highway Administration.

"This is a massive deception. What it ultimately is, it's a massive deception

The lawsuit said the 610 project should have never received a federal environmental exclusion which allows construction without a noise analysis study.

The exclusion came 15 years ago, when the project only involved repaving Loop 610. But with the widening of Interstate 10, the plan changed drastically and called for a huge overpass.

"It's called the Godzilla ramp," Bill Ware said.

And with the overpass comes noise.

"There is a federal standard in terms of the noise level or loudness and what they predict is 100 percent greater than the federal standard," he said.

Because of the lawsuit, in 2004 TxDOT performed a noise analysis study along North Post Oak Road and Memorial Drive, but not one near the park.

"If the noise is that bad here, it's bad there and bad over there," Ware said.

But the lawsuit also calls for TxDOT to provide something to limit all the noise.

"TxDOT could put quiet pavement, rubberized asphalt down on these ramps and that would make them quieter. They could put noise absorbing sound walls on these ramps," Holzer said.

TxDOT refused to comment because of the pending lawsuit.

The lawsuit is calling for an immediate halt to 610 construction near Memorial Park so that an independent noise analysis can be performed.

The Citizens Transportation Coalition, along with those who filed suit, are collecting signatures to show the judge there is public support.

For more information on how to sign the petition, visit www.ctchouston.org or call (713) 680-2500.