Highway Removal
Streetsblog Basics
10 Urban Freeways That Need to Come Down
There are excellent candidates for freeway removal in many American cities, where roads built 50 or 60 years ago are nearing the end of their useful lives. Cities that take the plunge and get rid of their urban highways don't regret it.
January 30, 2017
Cuomo Backpedals on Removing I-81 From Downtown Syracuse
Since it was built in the 1950s, the elevated highway has stifled downtown and separated it from Syracuse University. Removing it could be a transformative city-building project, but Cuomo is waffling.
January 18, 2017
Is Cuomo Ready to Rid Downtown Syracuse of I-81?
Speaking in Syracuse yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo appeared to indicate support for the removal of 3.75 miles of Interstate 81, the aging elevated highway that cuts through the heart of downtown.
August 12, 2016
Houston’s Big Chance to Turn Back the Tide of Car Traffic
There's a lot riding on Texas DOT's $7 billion plan for downtown Houston freeways.
June 29, 2016
Texas DOT Seems Open to a Downtown Dallas Highway Removal
Will Texas embrace a model of mobility that works well for cities, instead of tearing them up with wider highways?
June 13, 2016
U.S. DOT Wants to Show America How to Heal Divides Left By Urban Highways
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx opened up earlier this spring in a refreshingly personal speech about how highway construction in American cities isolated many neighborhoods -- especially black neighborhoods -- and cut people off from economic opportunity. Now U.S. DOT is following up with an effort to demonstrate how those wrongs can be righted.
May 5, 2016
Andrew Cuomo, City Builder
The headline is no joke. In his sixth year governing the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo is on a bit of a roll when it comes to urban planning and city-based economic development. Cuomo and his administration have announced or budgeted for multiple projects over the past few months that promise to heal urban neighborhoods by repairing the damage inflicted by mid-century highways.
April 12, 2016
Sheridan Expressway Removal Gets $97 Million Boost in State Budget
Last week's Albany budget deal includes $97 million for decommissioning the Sheridan Expressway and transforming it into a surface boulevard.
April 5, 2016
Vancouver City Council Votes to Erase Last Vestiges of Freeway System
Vancouver is famous for not having any freeways within the central city. But highway building got underway before public opposition quashed the freeway system in the early 1970s, and a couple of fragments of the old freeway structure have remained in the form of two short elevated roads.
October 28, 2015
500 People Ate Dinner on a Freeway in Akron This Weekend
How's this for a creative reuse of outdated 20th century infrastructure? This weekend, 500 people in Akron, Ohio, sat down and had dinner together on the Innerbelt Freeway.
October 5, 2015