Deconstruction Ahead: How Urban Highway Removal Is Changing Our

DE- CON- STRUCTION AHEAD How Urban Highway Removal Is Changing Our Cities 22 LAND LINES DE- CON- By Kathleen McCormick WITH THE interstate highway system in its seventh A 1958 map of the planned federal interstate system. decade, the condition of many urban highways Credit: U.S. Library of Congress. in the United States has deteriorated. Crumbling STRUCTION viaducts and other unsafe conditions call for an urgent fix. But rebuilding is complicated by rising construction costs, higher engineering and safety standards, scant funding, and other factors. Following these and other successful While the federal government underwrote most of projects in places from Portland to Chattanooga, AHEAD the cost of building the interstate system in the some of the biggest urban highway infrastructure 1950s and 1960s, state and local governments efforts now involve deconstruction. Cities and now provide about 80 percent of public infrastruc- states are trading highways for boulevards and ture funding. With perspectives on land use, connected streets that create space for public transit, and equity also evolving, many cities are transit, walking, and cycling. finding themselves at a crossroads when it comes The Michigan Department of Transportation to highways: remove or rebuild? is planning to convert a one-mile stretch of I-375 Some cities are opting for reconstruction. in Detroit into a surface street; its construction In Orlando, Florida, a 21-mile stretch of interstate in the 1960s paved over black neighborhoods in jammed with 200,000 vehicles a day is being the city’s core. The Texas DOT is exploring ways to upgraded in the $2.3 billion “I-4 Ultimate” project, remove or reduce the footprint of the two major which includes building or rebuilding 140 bridges, interstates that cut through Dallas, I-345 and I-30. redesigning 15 interchanges, moving exits, and While government plays a key role, the adding toll lanes. But other cities have removed highway removal movement often is built “from their highways entirely or relocated them under- a grassroots base, by people in the neighborhood ground, which repairs divided neighborhoods who have a vision for what it could be without and opens new vistas. San Francisco’s Octavia the highway,” says Ben Crowther, manager of the Boulevard, completed in 2003, replaced the Highways to Boulevards program of the Congress former Central Freeway, damaged in the 1989 for the New Urbanism (CNU). The organization Loma Prieta earthquake. Boston’s “Big Dig” advocates for replacing freeways with streets moved an elevated section of the Central Artery networks that can contribute to urban vitality underground, making way for the Rose Kennedy and livability. But this is no high-speed process, How Urban Highway Removal Greenway and reconnecting downtown districts Crowther says. These efforts “don’t take years— Is Changing Our Cities to the harborfront. they take decades.” Credit: SireAnko via iStock. APRIL 2020 23 Milwaukee tore down the 0.8-mile Park East Freeway spur (left), replacing it with McKinley Boulevard (right) and freeing up 24 acres of land for redevelopment. Credit: Courtesy of Congress for the New Urbanism. An Accelerating Trend up to code can heavily impact neighborhoods, due to requirements such as adding lanes or bridges “Urban highway removal has been happening in and realigning ramps. Removal, however, has the United States for the last 30 years,” says Ian positive impacts. “As we slow things down, value Lockwood, a livable transportation engineer with gets added” to cities through more mobility Toole Design Group in Orlando. “During the past choices, better urban design, and greater invest- few years, interest has accelerated.” ments, which draw new people and businesses, Lockwood has served multiple times on the he says. National Advisory Committee for CNU’s Free- “This trend is part of an evolution in how ways Without Futures report, which identifies we think about who cities are designed to serve,” and studies roadways that are ripe for removal says Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Associate (see sidebar). Since 1987, more than 20 highway Program Director Jessie Grogan, who leads the segments have been removed from downtowns organization’s work in the area of reducing and urban neighborhoods and waterfronts, poverty and spatial inequality. “No longer are mostly in North America, says CNU. Lockwood cities being planned for cars and commuters from says the movement has gained a national focus the suburbs; instead, their multiple roles as more cities recognize “how costly and as commerce centers, homes, and places of incompatible building highways was in cities.” recreation and tourism are being acknowledged According to federal lore, President Eisen- and encouraged.” hower didn’t intend for interstates to blast This trend also has economic benefits. through cities when he signed the Federal Milwaukee replaced the 0.8-mile elevated Park Aid Highway Act in 1956. But during previous East Freeway spur with McKinley Boulevard and congressional hearings, mayors and municipal restored the street grid to enhance access to associations had testified in favor of the inter- downtown, surrounding neighborhoods, and the state system because of the benefits cities Milwaukee Riverwalk. A master urban design plan expected to receive from urban highway seg- and form-based code were prepared to shape ments, and the idea soon became unstoppable. pedestrian-scaled development and reinforce The interstate system would eventually span the area’s original form and character. Removing 47,000 miles, many of them routed through the spur cost $25 million in federal and state cities experiencing what would turn out to be funds, as well as local tax increment financing peak mid-century population growth. (TIF) funds, says Peter Park, former Milwaukee Lockwood, who has worked on many high- planning director. The project transformed way removal projects, says bringing highways 24 underutilized acres into prime downtown 24 LAND LINES FREEWAYS WITHOUT FUTURES For over a decade, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has campaigned for removing highways to improve cities. CNU published its first biannual Overcoming a Dubious Legacy Freeways Without Futures report in 2008, charting the benefits of highway removal, including knitting While Eisenhower-era advocates promoted neighborhoods and communities together; revitalizing urban highways as expedient for shipping downtown cores; supporting active transportation; companies and suburban commuters, time has freeing up land for redevelopment for affordable revealed a different story. Demographic and housing, new businesses, and open space; and health data, photos, and maps confirm a fact increasing tax revenues. The latest Freeways Without known all too well by those living adjacent to Futures report (CNU 2019) provides highway removal highways: these roads cause serious health, case studies for: I-10 (Claiborne Expressway, New economic, social, and environmental damage. Orleans, LA); I-275 (Tampa, FL); I-345 (Dallas, TX); I-35 Inserting highways often occurred in conjunction (Austin, TX); I-5 (Portland, OR); I-64 (Louisville, KY); I-70 with “urban renewal” efforts, which targeted (Denver, CO); I-81 (Syracuse, NY); I-980 (Oakland, CA); and predominantly low-income and black communi- Kensington and Scajaquada Expressways (Buffalo, NY). ties with the least political purchase and least likelihood of resistance. Freeway construction in many U.S. cities caused homes and businesses to be demolished; limited access to housing, services, jobs, and open space; and polluted air, real estate. Ongoing development in the area soil, and water. has helped generate more than $1 billion in new Research on the short- and long-term downtown investments, Park says. Between impacts of living, working, and attending school 2001 and 2006, the average assessed land near highways has documented many environ- values per acre in the freeway footprint grew by mental and health risks, including elevated rates over 180 percent, and the average assessed land of asthma, cardiovascular disease, preterm values in the TIF district grew by 45 percent, birth, immune damage, and cancer. Tailpipe compared to a citywide increase of 25 percent. exhaust contains particulate matter, carbon “We’ve shown that when you take the monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic highway out of the city, it gets better,” says compounds (VOCs) such as benzene. VOCs can Park. “It’s that simple.” The most valuable real react with nitrogen oxides to produce ozone, the estate in any city is downtown, adds Park, who most widespread outdoor air pollutant. Children, is a consultant to cities, a repeat member of older adults, and people with preexisting CNU’s National Advisory Committee for the conditions, especially in low-income urban Freeways Without Futures report, and a former areas, are at greater risk for air pollution-related Lincoln/Loeb Fellow. By removing a highway, a health impacts, according to the Environmental city can develop more valuable assets, he says. Protection Agency (EPA). These environmental An aging highway might attract matching dollars and health risks persist despite today’s more from the federal government for repairs, but if stringent emission and fuel standards, which the city removes it and frees up land for redevel- have reduced harmful emissions by 90 percent opment, that’s a much better long-term option compared to 30 years ago (EPA 2014). for producing jobs, housing, tax revenues, and “It’s important

Load more