Top Ten Freeways Without a Future... Are you near one?

[SoCalDem]

http://www.cnu.org/highways/freewayswithoutfutures

A National List of Top Teardown Prospects

The “Freeways Without Futures” list recognizes the top-ten locations in North America where the opportunity is greatest to stimulate valuable revitalization by replacing aging urban highways with boulevards and other cost-saving urban alternatives. The list was generated from an open call for nominations and prioritized based on factors including the age of the structure, redevelopment potential, potential cost savings, ability to improve both overall mobility and local access, existence of pending infrastructure decisions, and local support.

Cities around the world are replacing urban highways with surface streets, saving billions of dollars on transportation infrastructure and revitalizing adjacent land with walkable, compact development. Transportation models that support connected street grids, improved transit, and revitalized urbanism will make reducing gasoline dependency and greenhouse gas emissions that much more convenient. It pays to consider them as cities evaluate their renewal strategies — and as the U.S. evaluates its federal transportation and climate policy.

Learn more about the Highways to Boulevards Initiative from CNU and the Center for Neighborhood Technology and explore the current campaigns that residents and inspired public officials are leading in Seattle and Buffalo.

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10. 11th Street Bridges and the Southeast Freeway, Washington D.C.

The Southeast Freeway is a 1.39-mile stretch of freeway running through Washington D.C. built in the late 1960s. It connects Interstate 395 to Interstate 295 at the 11th Street Bridges and was prevented from continuing west due to local opposition at the time. To address congestion and traffic routing problems at the interchange connecting the Southeast/Southwest Freeway and the Anacostia Freeway (I-295) over the Anacostia River, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) began investigating how to reconstruct and reconfigure the interchange at the 11th Street Bridges.

The Concerned Citizens of Eastern Washington, the Capitol Hill Restoration Society, some of whom were involved with the freeway revolt in the 1960s, began investigating the FHWA's preferred alternative in the Final Environmental Impact Assessment. Working with the transportation engineering firm Smart Mobility, Inc., the Capitol Hill Restoration Society discovered that, while the DC Department of Transportation states that there will not be an increase in capacity, the “preferred alternative … will result in a 50% increase of freeway capacity into central DC, even though this is contrary to the DC Comprehensive Plan.” This project has renewed discussions about improving surface-street and pedestrian connections in the near southeastern section of the district by removing the Southeast Freeway -- what the DC Office of Planning refers to as a “formidable psychological barrier.”

[Xithras]

1. Wow, that viaduct in Seattle needs to come down now.

It's structurally identical to the Cypress Freeway in Oakland, which killed many many people in the '89 Loma Prieta quake. I actually did a doubletake when I first saw the photo, because I thought I was looking at a picture of the old Cypress structure. Freeways like that should not exist in earthquake zones.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. It's worse than the Cypress Freeway.

It's built entirely on fill. That waterfront didn't exist 100 years ago. It's the worst possible material to build on when it comes to earthquakes. That whole section will undergo liquefaction. I was surprised when it survived the Nisqually quake.

[Xithras]

6. Nope, that just means that the Cypress is an even better model.

The land the Cypress existed on was marshland that was drained and infilled to build a residential area for the dockworkers, and later a freeway. Ground liquefaction was a major part of the reason for the Cypress Structure collapse in 1989.

Comparing the shakemaps of the two earthquakes, I'd say that Seattle simply got lucky in 2001. You couldn't pay me to drive on the lower deck of that thing.

[jobycom]

3. I-10 in New Orleans was my first thought.

5. Claiborne Expressway, New Orleans, LA

In the 1950s, Interstate 10 (I-10) replaced Claiborne Avenue, a tree-lined boulevard that was home to a thriving business district in the Treme neighborhood. Treme was one of the first free African-American communities and one of the wealthiest before the freeway devastated local businesses, severed connections between residential neighborhoods, and destroyed the live oaks that once lined the broad avenue.

With the construction of I-610 in the 1970s, which provides a more direct route for long-distance through traffic, calls for the removal of I-10 between the Pontchartrain Expressway and Elysian Fields Avenue have been increasing. The Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP), a massive planning process to coordinate recovery and rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, identified that the removal of I-10 "would have considerable positive impacts by re-connecting neighborhoods and restoring what was once a beautiful tree-lined avenue. Traffic redistribution provides economic development benefits to a corridor ripe for more volume." The UNOP predicts that with the full removal of two miles of the elevated I-10, the city will gain 35 to 40 city blocks that will no longer be blighted by the freeway and 20 to 25 blocks of open space along Claiborne Avenue.

[marmar]

4. I'm glad to see they included the Gardiner Xway in Toronto on the list.....

It's an absolute blight and divides the waterfront from the rest of downtown.

[Warpy]

5. Highway engineering in the 1950s was grotesque

and didn't consider the needs of anyone but truck traffic. It was obviously a project for national security and troop movement rather than service to the people of the country.

My own candidate for worst planning in the world goes to the Cross Bronx Distressway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_Bronx_Expressway, although there were similarly badly built and neighborhood destroying candidates in Boston.

Unfortunately, the CBD is over utilized, unlike the ugly monstrosities in this article, so New Yorkers are probably stuck with it.

However, they'll never forgive Robert Moses for ramming it through.

[Retrograde]

9. Robert Moses was Satan incarnate

or at least one of his higher-ranking minions. In the 50s his agency built the Niagara extension of the Thruway along the waterfront, effectively blocking all access to the lake and river. It's not just truck traffic he liked (and it's ironically banned on the section named for him): he didn't think people without private cars should have access to things like beaches and parks. Read The Power Broker if you want a good scare about what a bureaucrat with brains, ambition and no soul can do.

The Skyway in Buffalo still scares me when I see it. My father used to work in the Outer Harbor, and he often got stuck there in winter when the winds from off Lake Erie made the damn thing ice up and shut down. It really shouldn't be that hard to remove - the last time I was under it it sounded like a bunch of strong people with come-alongs could do it.

San Francisco removed the section of freeway that went along the Bay some years ago and opened up the waterfront (of course, a major earthquake helped). People bitched about lack of easy access to some areas, especially Chinatown, for years afterwards, but it's now a pleasant place to walk and a number of new businesses moved in.

[asjr]

7. That cat picture is the cutest I have ever seen. I wish

I had one like it bigger to frame.

[SoCalDem]

8. Here's a really big pic of it... just for you

?BIG

click link and then click pic for "bigness"

[asjr]

11. Thank you! We are cat people and the family

will love this.

[Confusious]

10. I say we dump all freeways

There are better alternatives.

We keep promoting the car by building more freeways, which adds more cars, which adds more freeways, ad infinitium.

[Initech]

12. Wow, no freeways in California? Interesting.

[SoCalDem]

13. Maybe because they are always re-routing & changing them out here

:shrug: