Freeway Teardowns

$11 Billion: Estimated Cost of Replacing the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway With a Tunnel
A plan to teardown the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and build a tunnel in its place has new political support and an expensive engineering plan.

Hartford Facing Tough Choices About Downtown Highway
The Interstate 84 viaduct in Hartford, Connecticut, is past due for major updates, and a variety of very different possibilities are on the table.

Trading Highways for Homes
More and more, cities are seeing little-used highways as a chance to reverse the planning decisions of the 20th century and provide more housing and economic opportunities.

Which Ambitious Renovation Plan for the BQE?
The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway needs work, but the various proposals have very different visions about how to tackle the project and what the final outcome will be.

Brooklyn-Queens Expressway Needs Innovative Solutions
The New York City roadway is desperately in need of repair, but just tearing it down and replacing it would be a shortsighted fix.
Dallas City Hall Begins to Ponder a New Future for the I-345
A proposal once too controversial to consider is gaining traction at several layers of government.

Opinion: Don't Forget the Benefits of Urban Freeways
After reading this recent opinion piece by Bill Fulton, some pro-transit and anti-highway advocates might be thinking, "Et tu, Bill Fulton?"

10 Freeways That Have Got to Go
The Congress for New Urbanism has released the latest Freeways Without Futures list, updating a list we last saw in 2014.

A New Ally in the Fight Against Car-Centric Planning in Dallas: TxDOT
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has envisioned a future for Downtown Dallas that includes more downtown and fewer freeways.

Urban Revitalization Through Highway Teardowns
Alana Semuels, staff writer for The Atlantic, examines highway teardowns beginning with the San Francisco Embarcadero in 1989 to see how they have worked in terms of revitalizing poorer areas or restoring the urban fabric that they destroyed.

Southern California First: Freeway Teardown Project Coming to Long Beach
Funded by a grant from the California Department of Transportation, Long Beach released an RFP for conceptual and design services for a plan to transform the Terminal Island Freeway into a "regional serving greenbelt and local serving road."
Tear Down the Freeway, Or Fix It Up?
That's the dilemma with Interstate 81 in Syracuse, NY, an elevated freeway that cuts through the center of the city. At the end of its life expectancy, planners are debating its fate.
How An Inner-City Freeway Disappeared
A "crazy idea" to remove an inner city freeway in Seoul, South Korea turned to reality. This piece tells the story about how this unlikely event came to be.
Freeway Teardowns: The Prudent Choice?
Efforts to tear down the Interstate-10 Claiborne Expressway, a 2.2 mile section of elevated roadway in New Orleans that many locals and activists have blamed for separating neighborhoods. Neal Pierce says teardowns might begin to grow in popularity.
Tear Down Claiborne Ave. Expressway, Says Coalition
A group of activists and planners has released a report showing how tearing down the Claiborne Ave. Expressway in New Orleans and turning it into a boulevard would benefit the neighborhood and the city.
Highway Teardowns Benefitting Traffic Flow and City Life
The Infrastructurist offers four case studies of cities that have removed highways. The result: less congestion.
Reclaiming Milwaukee: John Norquist on the Politics of Urbanism
In the second part of this Streetsblog interview, CNU President John Norquist discusses his tenure as mayor of Milwaukee and the politics behind making cities more transit-oriented and walkable.
Freeway Freefall
Next American City takes a look at freeways and sees the end coming -- for some, anyway.
Top Freeway Teardown Candidates
The Congress for the New Urbanism has released a list of the top ten urban freeways that need to be torn down.
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