Urban Freeway Caps/Freeway Removal

[TouchTheSky13]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

There are plans to cap over the trench that Connecticut Avenue sits in north of Dupont Circle. A park would be built above this section of Connecticut Avenue. This is one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in Washington.

Dupont will get a new park over Connecticut Avenue


Greater Greater Washington
June 3, 2014

"Besides simply adding park space, which is always valuable, this would better connect the two sides of Connecticut Avenue, and add plenty of room to enjoy food from the eateries nearby. Further, since this would not be National Park Service land, it would be possible to program this space with events much more flexibly than NPS regulations allow for the circle itself.

Behind the buildings on the west side of Dupont Circle is a fairly large surface parking lot, which is a rarity in the neighborhood and not the best use of space when it could have needed housing. However, one argument against developing this space (besides it being up to the property owner) is that the farmers’ market uses that parking lot and adjacent 20th Street. This park could possibly become the new site of the farmers’ market."

https://ggwash.org/view/34930/dupont...ecticut-avenue

Here is some more information about this proposal: https://ctavestreetscapeplaza.com/ .

GGWash is my go to source for DMV urbanist issues! There is a similar proposal for North Capitol in Bloomingdale.

https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/bl...romenade/16393

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by TouchTheSky13

Of course you can ...it makes you wonder what civil engineers were smoking in the latter half of the 20th century...

Transverse and evacuate urban cores via the auto at the highest rate of speed possible. It wasn't so much a drug but a misguided priority and depending on where you are in the country, many of them are still smoking it.

[TouchTheSky13]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Transverse and evacuate urban cores via the auto at the highest rate of speed possible. It wasn't so much a drug but a misguided priority and depending on where you are in the country, many of them are still smoking it.

True. That, and straight up racism.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by TouchTheSky13

I'm seeing a pattern here with SF. Tear down a freeway and make it a boulevard, and then redevelop former waterfront industrial sites into thriving mixed use neighborhoods.

You've just about got it. Pretty much all the industrial port activity moved across the Bay to Oakland a century ago because it added an extra day to transporting goods to and from ships docked in San Francisco up the peninsula vs Oakland which has a direct connection to railroads headed east. That left most of the former railroad rights of way as well as associated warehouse and industrial space ripe for redevelopment.

And also because San Francisco is at the tip of a peninsula, building freeways THROUGH the city (as opposed to TO it), was pretty pointless. The only one that ever really made sense--the north/south route up the peninsula and across the Golden Gate Bridge--was never built and has always been a surface boulevard for much of the way inside the city (called Park-Presidio Blvd).

[TouchTheSky13]

The Feds Might Nudge Cities Toward Highway Removals

https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburne...hway-removals/

This article talks specifically about the push to use federal community justice grants under Biden's American Jobs Plan to remove I-345 in Dallas. It is on the list of the Congress for New Urbanism's "Freeways Without Futures" and would be an excellent candidate for removal and boulevard replacement.


Photo Credit: Congress for New Urbanism


Photo Credit: Congress for New Urbanism

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by TouchTheSky13

The Feds Might Nudge Cities Toward Highway Removals

Ever since the 1960s, the desirability of highways that run THROUGH cities seems to have been replaced by those that run AROUND cities. Around 1960, I can recall how wonderful it was to be able to drive from Washington DC to New York and go around Baltimore on its new "beltway" which was the first such I am aware of.

Right around that same time, though, Washington DC began building its own "beltway" and I recall driving my "go-cart" on the new paving before that project opened to traffic. Soon these beltways became all the rage and just about every city now has one. If you are driving long-distance you no longer need to (or want to) go through a downtown area so there's no reason to have limited access highways completely traversing a city. Highways entering the city should terminate there, consistent with the city's street grid and traffic patterns.

[202_Cyclist]

Neighborhoods united: Highway removal gains steam in U.S. cities

By Carey L. Biron
Reuters
Apr. 12, 2021

"WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Through the years that she has been fighting against it, Amy Stelly’s opponent has remained unmoved, looming nearby and covering her New Orleans home with filth: an elevated highway, towering above her once-thriving neighborhood.

Since its construction in the 1960s, the section of Interstate 10 running above Claiborne Avenue has decimated what used to be the center of the city’s Black community, said Stelly, including businesses and greenery.

Once a bustling retail corridor shaded by mature oak trees, the street satisfied all of the community’s needs, the designer and urban planner told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Doctors, dentists, groceries. It was the place to be.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN2BZ0VF

[TouchTheSky13]

It's good to see the Biden Administration expressing support for freeway removal with both words and dollars, but it is also good IMO to see them intervening to stop bad highway expansion projects like the I-45 expansion in Houston which would have had disparate impacts on poor people and people of color.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...hway-expansion

[TouchTheSky13]

Metro Board Unanimously Approves Motion to Delay 605/5 Freeway Widening and Instead Study Alternatives

https://la.streetsblog.org/2020/10/2...-alternatives/

[TouchTheSky13]

Wanted to mix in some global examples.

Freeway removal in Madrid.

Before vs. After


Roadway Removal in Utrecht. Before and After (with a restored canal!)

[Busy Bee]

To be honest, those incredibly well engineered (trenched, undercrossings, architectural features, ped accommodations etc) urban highways in those photos make the typical American elevated viaduct or slash and burn cut look all the worse.

[ardecila]

What freeway removals in the US actually have community support (instead of just astroturfing by CNU?) This whole thing seems like a lot of urbanist hype but the only completed projects are those that were stubs to begin with.

Removal of Claiborne in New Orleans is favored by the neighborhoods along the route, but never saw support in the metro area overall. Even city residents in the rest of the city wanted to keep it.

SF (Embarcadero, Central), Rochester (Inner Loop) and Milwaukee (Park East) are done, but those were always half-finished projects that were basically useless. Recently St Louis has removed another useless freeway spur next to Union Station so they can build a soccer stadium. Really NY removing the West Side Highway is the only actually useful route that came down, but only in the context of multiple parallel subway lines and a city bankruptcy. Plus the structural collapse in 1973 forced the city's hand and showed New Yorkers they could get by just fine without it.

To be clear, I support freeway removals but I see no evidence that the majority of Americans feel the same way...

[TouchTheSky13]

Originally Posted by ardecila

What freeway removals in the US actually have community support (instead of just astroturfing by CNU?) This whole thing seems like a lot of urbanist hype but the only completed projects are those that were stubs to begin with.

To be clear, I support freeway removals but I see no evidence that the majority of Americans feel the same way...

I think that the tide is starting to change. There's no metrics really that anyone, even the most data-driven, community-oriented planners, can produce to show concretely that Americans support highway removal. Americans have a tendency to hate things until they happen. Whether its healthcare, public transit, renewable energy, etc., Americans resist change until the underlying economics of the status quo start to unravel and people feel the impact of change. There probably weren't very many people that were happy about the decisions to tear down the Embarcedero Expressway or the West Side highway at the time, but you'd be hard pressed to find a San Franciscan or New Yorker today who wants them back.

Furthermore, there are sharp racial divides here that cannot be ignored. For decades, the policies of urban renewal meant running white men's roads through black men's homes and neighborhoods. Not only were blacks redlined out of white suburban neighborhoods, they saw their soles sources of community wealth - entire business districts - leveled to make way for these roads. It may or may not prove causation, but there is a strong correlation between the rise in African American political power and black community activism and the popularity of freeway removal. Because African American communities have always seen these roads for what they are - barriers and tools of segregation.

[TouchTheSky13]

It’s a Crumbling Road to Despair. Can New York Fix the B.Q.E.?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/a...ction-nyc.html

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by TouchTheSky13

I think that the tide is starting to change. There's no metrics really that anyone, even the most data-driven, community-oriented planners, can produce to show concretely that Americans support highway removal.

What are you talking about? This is an eminently poll-able question.

There probably weren't very many people that were happy about the decisions to tear down the Embarcedero Expressway or the West Side highway at the time, but you'd be hard pressed to find a San Franciscan or New Yorker today who wants them back.

The West Side Highway collapsed in 1973 and sat as a crumbling eyesore, closed to traffic, for almost 10 years because of NYC's bankruptcy. By the time it was finally torn down most New Yorkers had adjusted to life without it.

The Embarcadero Fwy was another useless stub, so it probably didn't have a lot of defenders once it was clear it could never be extended.

[TouchTheSky13]

Why Highway Teardowns Make Great Infrastructure (and Equity) Investments


https://usa.streetsblog.org/2020/12/...y-investments/

[TouchTheSky13]

The Big Picture: A Plan for Buffalo

https://www.buffalorising.com/2021/0...n-for-buffalo/

[TouchTheSky13]

Bridging the gap: Richmond 300 plan envisions reconnecting Jackson Ward

https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/07...on-ward/#djPop

[TouchTheSky13]

Even small cities like Peoria, IL are getting in on the action. The city is seeking funding to conduct a feasibility study for capping I-74 through downtown.

[TouchTheSky13]

Visionary plan to cap Chicago's Kennedy Expressway with a park might still happen

https://chicago.curbed.com/2020/1/14...park-west-loop