City planning initiatives in the mid 20th century paved highways through American cities to facilitate connections to
developing suburbs and other cities. Justified as "urban renewal", many low-income and predominantly Black neighborhoods were
destroyed to make space for highways. Construction tore up communities, divided cities, and had a significant environmental
impact on the surrounding areas.
The opportunities
As the highways built during "urban renewal" fall into disrepair, they face a costly future regardless of if they are
removed or repaired. By choosing to remove them, citizens and elected officials have new opportunities to redistribute
space dominated by vehicles and transform what it means to live and move in a city.
For example, the $45 million
Park East Freeway removal
in Milwaukee cost less than half of the $100 million that it would have cost to rebuild the freeway.
The project revitalized downtown Milwaukee, created three new neighborhoods, and generated over a billion dollars in
investment.
Fans at the deer district, home of the Bucks stadium where the Park East Freeway used to be.
credit.
The benefits
"The removal of an urban highway creates the opportunity to reclaim part of its former right-of-way for development, which boosts a city's tax base, provides access to jobs, and increases household wealth along the corridor"
-
Congress for New Urbanism
Successful highway removal projects can breathe new life into cities by creating community spaces and housing,
attracting private investment, and improving environmental quality without impacting traffic.
It is therefore crucial to be conscious of equity when planning beyond urban highways.
The Congress for New Urbanism
and Transportation for America
have outlined principles that focus on policy action as well as community, environmental, and economic guidelines for moving forward with
urban highway removal.
Highway Reclamation Projects
Project Types
Glossary
Induced Demand
The phenomenon of adding more lanes to a freeway and ending up with more traffic. This happens because
more lanes invites more cars which creates more traffic.
Viaduct
An elevated section of highway.
Spur
A short road forming a branch from a larger road. In the context of this project, spurs are often
incomplete sections of highways that were meant to circle cities.
Urban Renewal
City planning movement in the 1950's and 1960's, championed by Robert Moses, that pushed for the construction
of highways through city centers. The idea was to facilitate movement through cities into suburbs and other cities
and also to reduce traffic. Undoing the harms caused by urban renewal is the focus of this website.
Urban Blight
At surface level, urban blight refers to rundown parts of cities. The reality of the phrase exposes deep, structural
and institutional inequalities in America that have resulted in a strong correlation between areas of urban blight and predominantly
Black neighborhoods.
Corridor
A section of roadway, i.e. a stretch between exits on a highway or some other geographic bounding.
Disclaimer
This page was built in two weeks as a final presentation for a class on Sustainable Design at Pratt.
Project list is not exhaustive and as of now doesn't include projects that haven't been formally adopted/approved.
There isn't a regularly updated API or database for these projects so information/links may become dated.
Each project was added manually to a geoJSON which was last updated on February 4th, 2023.
Published on December 15th, 2022 Updated on February 4th, 2023 Updated on April 24th, 2024
"6. Design - Guidebook - Case Studies - Livability - FHWA." Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/livability/case_studies/guidebook/chap06.cfm.
Transportation For America. "A Policy Proposal to Undo the Damage of 'Urban Renewal,'" December 7, 2020. https://t4america.org/2020/12/07/four-recommendations-to-undo-the-damage-of-urban-renewal/.
amckeag. "Completed Highways to Boulevards Projects." Text. CNU, June 12, 2015. https://www.cnu.org/our-projects/highways-boulevards/completed-h2b-projects.
Guest Contributor. "Park East Corridor: The Freeway Teardown That Helped Put Milwaukee on the National Stage This Summer." Milwaukee Independent (blog), February 13, 2020. https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/syndicated/park-east-corridor-freeway-teardown-helped-put-milwaukee-national-stage-summer/.
GridPhilly. "Civil Rights Demonstrators Draw Attention to the Role Interstate 676 Plays in Systemic Racism - Grid Magazine." Accessed October 6, 2022. https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2020/7/7/civil-rights-demonstrators-draw-attention-to-the-role-interstate-676-plays-in-systemic-racism/.
CNU. "Harbor Drive." Text, July 27, 2017. https://www.cnu.org/what-we-do/build-great-places/harbor-drive.
LILP. "How Urban Highway Removal Is Changing Our Cities." Accessed November 17, 2022. https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/articles/2020-03-deconstruction-ahead-urban-highway-removal-changing-cities.
King, Noel. "A Brief History Of How Racism Shaped Interstate Highways." NPR, April 7, 2021, sec. History. https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/984784455/a-brief-history-of-how-racism-shaped-interstate-highways.
Popovich, Nadja, Josh Williams, and Denise Lu. "Can Removing Highways Fix America's Cities?" The New York Times, May 27, 2021, sec. Climate. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/27/climate/us-cities-highway-removal.html.
"Rochester Inner Loop East, New York, A Freeway to Boulevard | FHWA - Center for Innovative Finance Support - Project Profiles." Accessed December 8, 2022. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/project_profiles/ny_freeway_to_boulvard_rochester.aspx.
Stone, Laurie. "More Lanes Do Not Mean Less Traffic." RMI, October 20, 2021. https://rmi.org/more-lanes-do-not-mean-less-traffic/.
"The Big Dig: Project Background | Mass.Gov." Accessed October 6, 2022. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/the-big-dig-project-background.
"Urban Highway Removal: 4 Considerations for Reknitting a City's Fabric." Accessed December 4, 2022. https://www.planetizen.com/features/116569-urban-highway-removal-4-considerations-reknitting-citys-fabric.
