capping or removing urban freeways and interstates.

[Dave from Michigan]

If you didn't know downtown Detroit is quite chopped up with freeways dividing up neighborhoods. I would like to see parts of several freeways either capped or removed. I would remove interstate 375 completely it is only a mile long but cuts off the near east side from downtown and Eastern Market. It would be raised to street level and become a boulevard. I would also remove the Lodge freeway which goes around the west/southwest side of downtown. This also be raised up to street level and would become a boulevard.  Both the Lodge and 375 run right onto Jefferson ave right downtown they block access to the waterfront and make it less pedestrian friendly since you have freeway traffic going right onto a street. MDOT has actually discussed removing 375 and turning it into a boulevard. I would cap interstate 75 between Grand River and Brush street this would become a park and would connect Downtown to Midtown and make it more pedestrian friendly. The 75/375/Gratiot ave interchange would be removed to allow access to Eastern Market from downtown. A new exit would be added elsewhere. I would also cap interstate 94 between the Lodge freeway and interstate 75. Interstate 94 is the border between Midtown and New Center. This part of 94 is going to be completely redone at a massive cost of 1.8 billion dollars for like 8 miles. The plan was opposed by the city and everyone in the area. They will have to remove buildings and homes since they will also expand the freeway to 4 lanes each way and a service drive. This plan should not happen but at the very least they should cap it to stop the divide of Midtown and New center. Seriously if we need a few billion for freeways no problem but 25 million for light rail NO WAY! On the subject of rail, it would be added to several main roads in Detroit but that is another topic. So people will say this will cause traffic problems but you can still take freeways 90% of the way into downtown.

Are there any urban freeways you would remove or cap.

[Frodo]

The Whitehurst Freeway would be numero uno on my list to be removed in the DC area.  

In addition, I would like to see the I-66 Theodore Roosevelt bridge, (including all the bridges carrying I-395 traffic) to be undergrounded as well.  

[barfbag]

It sounds like a big project. Hopefully, things get better.

[Dave from Michigan]

Here is my proposal on a map, here is current downtown Detroit



here is after, Black is capped freeway, red is turned into a boulevard, and blue is removed.

[Dave from Michigan]

I thought this would be a interesting topic to discuss. I guess not. Or I made it too Detroit orientated. Or this is the wrong board, I was going to put it under U.S. general discussion.

Anyone else? freeways you would like to see removed or turned into a street or boulevard. Or freeways that should be capped.

Also Washington D.C. was smart to fight to have the freeway go around the city rather than through it. I believe they wanted to run it right through it, that would have been devastating.

Southwest Detroit and Corktown areas are quite divided up in Detroit also but there is not much you can do about it since it has so much truck traffic from the Bridge to Canada and plus another bridge is going in but south of the current one. Also you can't remove interstate 75 completely even thought Interstate 75 and 96 chop up southwest Detroit.

[barfbag]

I'm just not familiar with Detroit. I've only been there twice. Good luck on the project though and I hope things get turned around.

[opebo]

I agree with the idea that this 'chopping up' effect was deleterious and should be eliminated, however in most cases it would be better to rebuild the freeways either as tunnels or as raised highways several stories above the city.  The point is it would be better to spend more money, not less, on infrastructure - we should never, never skimp. 

[traininthedistance]

Strongly support, of course.

Urban freeways were basically daggers thrust right into the heart of our cities, breaking up stable neighborhoods, unjustly evicting thousands, cutting people off from downtown/the waterfront/parks/neighbors/etc. and wildly exacerbating the mid-century decline in our urban areas.

All to try and shave a few minutes off the commutes of white-flight suburbanites (that, due to the principle of induced demand and the building of edge cities, didn't even happen!).  We should obviously not build any more, and cap and/or remove as many as we can (which, granted, is not going to be a huge fraction of them).

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Never have lived in one of those chopped communities so I can't really say.  By and large the interstates in Columbia were built so as to go around the city rather than through it. Indeed, Columbia has a beltway formed from portions of I-20, I-26, and I-77, none of which go downtown themselves.  The two roads that do chop up neighborhoods, SC-277 and SC-12, are situated such that I doubt that much would be gained by razing or covering them up.

I suspect one reason Columbia lucked out goes back to the original city plan which included wide streets as firebreaks so there wasn't as much call for freewayizing the interior of the city to reduce congestion back when the interstates were being built.