Someone in Memphis is happy it wasn't built.
http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=56749
When I was younger, I didn't understand why they couldn't have come up with an alternative. Now I'm older, I am very glad they didn't build it. Overton Park is indeed world class and needed to be preserved. Unfortunately, the area immediately west is not one you would want to linger in. It's too bad they can't seem to improve it.
rte66man.
Found a blog entry that has brief mention of former plans to tunnel I-40 through the park:
http://www.overtonparkforever.org/2011/03/forty-years-ago.html (http://www.overtonparkforever.org/2011/03/forty-years-ago.html)
^^^
Man, there are some actual tree-huggers in that blog entry.
But, seriously, I can see the wisdom in not bulldozing the park. However, why didn't anyone come up with an alternative to routing I-40 over the former I-240. I hate to see 2di's routed over beltways like I-95 in Washington, DC and Boston, MA because by the time people finally admitted that the original route wasn't going to fly, there weren't any alternatives that weren't hellishly expensive.
The only alternative that would have made sense to me would have been to route it south of Overton Park along Madison Ave. Routing along Poplar would have been too close to the park.