Which Highways Would You Bury?

[Reverberation]

Your top 3 urban freeways that you would bury. Maybe instead of saying all of them, keep it to 5-10 miles total. Go!

- 75/85 in downtown Atlanta
- I-5 through downtown Tacoma
- 75/275 in Detroit.

[jbermingham123]

1. I-5 in downtown Seattle should be completely replaced with a 3.5 mile tunnel through Capitol Hill, rather than running around the side of it. On and off ramps could be connected to the tunnel via smaller tunnels. Exit portal should be somewhere on the West side of Beacon Hill.

2. the remaining exposed portion of I-90 in downtown Seattle should turn into a tunnel and go straight under beacon hill, to intersect with the aforementioned I-5 tunnel, but underground.

3. I-90 just south of downtown Boston should be completely covered with buildings

Mineappolis and Kansas City... *gestures frantically in every direction*

[mrnyc]

the shoreway in cleveland from edgewater park to the west and east thru downtown will more likely be calmed and some elevated parts of it torn out downtown, but that needs dealt with most immediately to access the lakefront better.

capping the cle innerbelt is also likely to happen, at least some of it that is. there is discussion and a push to do some of it. its cleveland's cross bronx era neighborhood destroyer.

[Steely Dan]

The Kennedy expressway that slices through Chicago's west loop.

It's already trenched, just needs to be decked over.

[202_Cyclist]

I would bury the Southeast freeway in DC, a short highway which divides the Capitol Riverfront/Navy Yard neighborhood from Capitol Hill, both of which are very walkable neighborhoods. I would like to see more housing and parks built where the current highway is. I would also like to see a streetcar run down M Street, from the future 11th Street pedestrian bridge, through the Capitol Riverfront/Navy Yard, and continuing through Southwest to the Wharf.

Here was an article a few years ago proposing to tear down the Southeast freeway.

Let’s Tear Down the Southeast Freeway and Build a New Neighborhood

By Dan Reed
Feb. 16, 2016
Washingtonian

"With six new apartment buildings opening this year, three more under construction, and six more planned for 2018, Navy Yard—which has been open to development only since 2005—will soon be the District’s most densely populated neighborhood. There’s a major-league ballpark, a smattering of excellent restaurants, and a broad esplanade along the Anacostia River. Navy Yard has quietly become an enviable little city to itself.

Which is also its biggest drawback. The hulking presence of the elevated Southeast Freeway, which runs from South Capitol Street to the 11th Street Bridge, severs Navy Yard’s connection with the rest of DC, cutting off anyone traveling by foot, bike, car, or surface transit. Short trips to, say, Eastern Market or to jobs elsewhere on the Hill are particularly hampered by the eight lanes swooping through the neighborhood at the height of two stories..."

https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/0...-neighborhood/

[Nexis4Jersey]

Highway Removals

Interstate 81 in Syracuse
Interstate 83 in Downtown Baltimore
Interstate 395 in Baltimore

Downgraded and transformed into an Urban Boulevard

Route 29 in Trenton
Route 20 in Paterson

Park & Housing Caps

Interstate 80 in Ridgefield Park
Interstate 80 in Paterson
Interstate 280 in The Oranges & Newark
Interstate 78 in Newark

Buried in Tunnels

Interstate 84 & 91 in Hartford
Interstate 278 in Brooklyn

[UrbanImpact]

I-278 in Brooklyn is in the most dire state of them all.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

The Kennedy expressway that slices through Chicago's west loop.

It's already trenched, just needs to be decked over.

If money weren't a thing, I would bury the fucker from the West Loop all the way up to Diversey. The Kennedy is such a dividing line between Logan Square - Wicker Park and Lincoln Park / Lakeview. Having the Kennedy buried could open the doors to have trails / roads/ etc connecting these neighborhoods as opposed to:
- The Kennedy
- The retail belt of Home Depots, Costcos, etc from North up to Fullerton
- The river

[Obadno]

Most of them if possible really.

[twinpeaks]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Most of them if possible really.

Most freeways are ugly.

[PanhandleBledsoe]

Wilmington Delaware has a proposal to cap the sunken portion of 95 running straight through it. I think it's been tabled due to the cost though.

Philly - cap the Vine St expressway and finish capping the section in Old City. Then bury the I-95 section cutting off NL and Fishtown from the river.

Charlotte - demolish the south and east section of 277 (the downtown loop). It's such a small loop that there just isn't much of a benefit. People from east of uptown can still get to 77 on the north section.

[dktshb]

Not a freeway but I would tunnel the 1 under Golden Gate Park and end the 280 at the 101.

In LA I would remove the 90.

[wwmiv]

I can’t limit myself to three, sorry. One for each city where I’ve lived:

1. Interstate 35 through Downtown Austin between Cesar Chavez and Airport removing the scar of the only urban section of Interstate in the city.
2. Interstate 25 through Downtown Denver between 15th and 18th to connect Downtown with the Highlands
3. Interstate 90/94 near the Loop in Chicago between Fulton and Jackson to connect the West Loop with The Loop.
4. The entire ring of freeway around downtown San Antonio, from I-35 and Frio to US-281 and Cesar Chavez, reconnecting the traditional urban fabric in every direction.
5. Columbia doesn’t have anything suitable (no freeways downtown), but nearby Charlotte does: 277 between Church and South could be easily capped as is without much reconstruction at all.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Reverberation

Your top 3 urban freeways that you would bury. Maybe instead of saying all of them, keep it to 5-10 miles total. Go!

- 75/85 in downtown Atlanta
- I-5 through downtown Tacoma
- 75/275 in Detroit.

Do you mean I-375 in Detroit?

Mine are:
The BQE in Brooklyn
The Kennedy in Chicago
I-94 in Detroit

I-75 in Detroit should just be torn up between I-96 and I-94, and the interstate should be rerouted.

[llamaorama]

Outside of the big dense coastal cities and Chicago, this is kind of a difficult question since underground freeways are kind of situational when it comes to providing benefits. You still have a ton of entrance and exit ramps coming up to the surface so the adjacent roads are still going to be choked with traffic. Air rights development over freeways seems to be very rare unless its a bored tunnel. Building a park on top isn't necessary a benefit if there's not enough people around to use the park, and then there's the opportunity cost where you could build a much cheaper park somewhere better too.

In Dallas, there are already 2 freeway deck parks which make sense given their locations, and a plan to put I-345 around downtown into a much slimmer trench that will allow more surface streets to cross with various pedestrian-friendly plazas on top. Not a tunnel, but it will be good enough.

I wonder if, while leaving the main roadway as it is and requiring too much money, if it would be possible to brighten up and green up the DNT where it cuts across Oak Lawn at the border of Uptown. Put up Japanese style sound walls even on the elevated part, and plant crawling ivy all over it until it takes it over and just looks like a giant hedge.

Where Maple and Knight intersect perpedicularly with the freeway crossing diagonally, redo the sidewalks to be wider and then put in some kind of artistic LED lighting fixture which also makes it very very bright.

The idea would be to push some of the gentrification happening around Old Parkland and Uptown down to the neighborhood that's down there where Wycliff hits Harry Hines, creating a high-density mid-rise or high-rise district around the Market Center DART station and near the Medical District. This would give you more urbanism around transit, as the end goal.

I also think a bike and pedestrian bridge over 75 so the Katy Trail can continue to Mockingbird instead of ending at the feeder road would be desirable. Given the length it would have to go without supports it might have to be a cable stayed or arch structure, so it would be a landmark. There would have be some project to bury those high voltage power lines though.

[Xing]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

The Kennedy expressway that slices through Chicago's west loop.

It's already trenched, just needs to be decked over.

I’ll second that.

St Louis is in the same boat with I-44 near the arch, and it has a block covered already.

LA - the 101 from the 110 to the 10 - downtown (easiest)
110 from the 101 to the 10 (most beneficial).