The 80 crisscrossed American flags on a bridge above Route 213 in Methuen remind Ramon "Andy" Jimenez that he is not alone as he prays for the return of his son, Alex, a US Army specialist kidnapped in Iraq.

But under orders from the Massachusetts Highway Department, the display and hundreds of others hanging over highways across the state must be taken down by week's end. State officials said they are concerned the flags and signs could fall on drivers, causing a crash.

The crackdown comes a year after the state's last attempt to regulate the overhead displays. At the time, under pressure from military families and their advocates, highway officials said signs would be allowed if positioned behind fences, but now they are saying even these must go.

"When the soldiers or their families hear about this, they're going to be up in arms," said James Wareing, the leader of a military support group who assembled and maintains the display dedicated to Jimenez, whose family lives in Lawrence. "It has nothing to do with safety. . . . Nothing has ever happened in six years."

He has invited Andy Jimenez to help him take down the display today, before highway workers are sent to dismantle it.

The display "is good for me, because I don't feel alone," said Jimenez, whose son's unit was ambushed south of Baghdad in May. "Now I have to pull it down. I don't know why."

Mass Highway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky said the edict applies to all signs on bridges over highways. It neither singles out patriotic displays, nor makes an exception for them, she said.

"We can't avert our eyes from a known hazard," said Paiewonsky, who estimated that hundreds of signs have adorned bridges over the state's 9,000 miles of highways.

But the families and supporters of veterans, who spend hours sewing military and American flags together and anchoring them to bridges, said they thought they had a deal with the state to keep their displays in place, as long as they were protected by fences.

"I was told I could do that and they gave me their word and that was it," said Linda Noone, 49, of Reading, who put up a series of flags on an Interstate 93 overpass near the Wilmington border in 2005, a year after the death of her father, a Korean War vet.

Paiewonsky said that allowing protected signs to remain was a temporary agreement while her staff evaluated a longterm policy.

Patriotic tributes on highway overpasses began to proliferate after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Wareing, 49, of Methuen, spent more than $10,000 of his own money on supplies, including hundreds of flags, he said. The former Malden Mills manager never served in the military, but said he wanted to express patriotism, support the troops, and comfort families.

"I went wild with the bridges," he said. "At the peak of it, I had like 11 bridges throughout the state of Massachusetts and New Hampshire."

After last year's skirmish with the Highway Department, workers took down many of his displays that were not behind fences. But he believed that the Jimenez flags and one of his other tributes met the state's guidelines.

The second tribute, assembled in 2004 on a bridge over Interstate 495 in Chelmsford, honors Lance Corporal Andrew J. Zabierek, who was killed in Iraq. The Massachusetts Legislature has since named the bridge where the flags are hung on Route 4 in honor of the fallen Marine.

Both Wareing and Noone said they affix each flag with plastic ties and check frequently to make sure none break. Noone said she replaces the ties three times a year.

"Unfortunately, it's become a political controversy and that's not the way it should be," said Noone, whose daughter is a Marine.

State highway crews have recently been noticing a proliferation of not just flags and other military tributes, but also political messages, family birthday greetings, and even real estate advertisements, Paiewonsky said.

She sympathizes with the patriotic sentiment but says state government cannot get into the business of regulating which messages can stay.

"These are on interstate highways and the bridges and they are big and they're exposed to a lot of weather and wind. And there are thousands of vehicles passing under them every day," she said.

Paiewonsky met with Wareing last week and showed him poster-size signs that Mass Highway created to put at highway rest stops. The words "Welcome home troops! Thank you for your service!" are accompanied by the seals of the five military branches superimposed on an American flag.

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.

Noah Bierman Globe Staff / December 4, 2007
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