Hammond’s Governors Parkway bridge project is progressing, the city announced, but some residents aren’t backing down on their opposition.

The city announced March 13 that it’s installing a boundary fence around Briar East Woods, a city-owned, 18-acre parcel, according to Hammond’s website. By Tuesday, the fence was complete.

Briar East Woods is a 4,000-year-old forest in Hammond’s Hessville neighborhood and is one of the last surviving remnants of the High Tolleston Dunes, according to Just Transition Northwest Indiana’s website.

The woods are the location of the proposed multimillion-dollar Governors Parkway project, an overpass that would link 173rd Street and 169th Street between Parrish and Grand avenues.

In the announcement, the city said it would “alleviate decades long stopped train issues” in Hammond’s Hessville neighborhood.

“The city needs to begin preparations for the Governors Parkway project. By fencing this area off, we are making sure that the trespassing, illegal motorized vehicle use, illegal drug and alcohol use, and illegal dumping that has been occurring in this area is minimized,” Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott said in the announcement. “Today we began the first phase of the project that will restrict access to the area from Parrish Avenue just south of 169th Street. The remaining fence work will be completed in about a month. We encourage residents to enjoy nearby 179-acre Gibson Woods Nature Preserve to avoid the construction in this area as the project gets underway.”

McDermott did not respond to a request for comment.

Save Briar East Woods is a group of Northwest Indiana residents who advocate for preservation of the forest. Members were outside the new fence around Briar East Woods Tuesday, holding signs protesting the project.

Just Transition Northwest Indiana stands behind the group and advocates for an alternative to Governors Parkway, the organization’s Executive Director Ashley Williams said in a statement to the Post-Tribune.

“Losing a critical carbon sink and a thriving ecosystem as Briar East Woods is an absolute travesty for the health and well-being of our communities, one that we cannot afford living in an industrial sacrifice zone,” Williams said. “Incidents at BP and the steel mills routinely consume our skies with pollution and have sent residents into crisis mode, such as the recent benzene leak at the refinery the day after Christmas. For too long, Northwest Indiana has endured the impacts of daily exposure to industrial toxins, and we need places like Briar East Woods as the lungs of our region and planet.”

Multiple residents said they don’t think the fence is a sign that the project is moving forward but instead a “scare tactic” by city officials.

In April 2018, Hammond was awarded $6.7 million from the Indiana Department of Transportation for the proposed $14 million project.

Hammond was subject of a 2023 ProPublica article, which found that children would climb over or under stopped trains to get to school. Governors Parkway “solves 80% of the problem,” McDermott said in May 2023, according to Post-Tribune archives. The proposed bridge is about a mile away from where pedestrians were regularly crossing trains.

In May 2023, McDermott was then looking into the possibility of building an additional pedestrian bridge, which concerned residents say would cost more than $7 million.

Hammond School Board President Carlotta Blake-King said she believes city officials are using children as a prop to get support for Governors Parkway.

“Do the right thing by these kids,” Blake-King said. “Leave these woods alone.”

The school district could use the woods for hands-on learning, Blake-King said, and removing the forest for the overpass eliminates that opportunity.

Blake-King also asked why the fence isn’t temporary if it’s up to start constriction of the bridge. She also believes that the city is “fear-mongering” by saying in the announcement that the fence will deter crime.

“Stop it,” Blake-King said. “This is a student-centered project. That’s what it started out to be. Keep it that way. I’m getting more angry the more I think about it because you’re using my students as a prop.”

Residents have also said the city won’t listen to their concerns about the project. Linda Anguiano, a Hammond resident, said community members have been cut off from speaking against the project at public meetings, including at Hammond City Council and Mayor’s Night Out events.

Anguiano feels McDermott hasn’t been transparent with residents about the projects and the city’s plans.

“(Briar East Woods) makes such a difference,” she said. “It cuts out so much noise (from traffic), and it just makes such a difference.”

Elvia Fuentes, a Hammond resident, lives behind Briar East Woods and also said she has concerns about the Governors Parkway project. The forest is a resource for all Northwest Indiana residents, Fuente said, and they use it for hiking, walking dogs and other activities.

Fuentes is also concerned for the animals that live in Briar East Woods that will be displaced.

“We have a lot of animals, different kinds of species that live in there,” she said. “It would be devastating for us to lose that.”

Andrea Senters, another Hammond resident, said she lives a block away from Briar East Woods. She’s concerned about flooding in the city once the forest’s oak trees are gone.

McDermott previously told the Post-Tribune that the city would plant two trees for each that is torn down in Briar East Woods. The new trees won’t help flooding concerns, Senters said, because they won’t be as large as Briar East Woods’ oak trees and won’t be in the same location.

“Are we going to have to buy flood insurance?” Senters asked. “Imagine how much taxes are going to raise because we have to pay for the maintenance of (Governors Parkway.) It’s going to be unsustainable.”

mwilkins@chicagotribune.com