Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Highway Removal

Tear Down These 10 Freeways! (And Then Tear Down Some More)

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 13, 2014 | 77 Comments

Freeway teardowns are no longer as rare as an earthquake during the World Series. The Congress for the New Urbanism is back with its annual Freeways Without Futures list — the 10 highways most likely to be history in a few years. This year, the organization is also recognizing five other campaigns to watch, plus […]

Dallas Official: Without a Highway Teardown, Park Gets “Free Shade”

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 4, 2014 | 2 Comments

Getting officials on board with a highway teardown in Dallas is no easy task. Just ask Patrick Kennedy, a Dallas planner who has led the charge to remove IH-345, an elevated stump of a highway near central Dallas. Last week, the Texas Department of Transportation dismissed the teardown proposal out of hand, refusing to even […]

Akron Sets Out to Dismantle a Giant Road

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 3, 2014 | 28 Comments

Some places just talk about prioritizing transit and walking over highway construction. But Akron, Ohio, is putting its money where its mouth is. The Akron region will spend more money this year to reduce road capacity than to add it, according to Jason Segedy, head of the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study, the regional planning […]

A Highway Teardown Appears Likely, In an Unlikely Place

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 22, 2013 | 3 Comments

As the nation prepares for the expansion of the Panama Canal and all port cities go crazy deepening and widening everything in sight, the second biggest biggest port in the country is doing something unexpected: planning a highway teardown. The LA Times reported this week that Long Beach officials are studying the possibility of replacing […]

Will the Feds Support Rochester’s Downtown Highway Teardown?

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 29, 2013 | 23 Comments

It’s been called a “noose around the neck of downtown.” The Inner Loop in Rochester, New York — a regrettable 1960s-era sunken highway — completely encircles the city’s downtown, forming a wall between residential neighborhoods and the central business district. The road is unsightly and impassable on foot, a huge barrier to walkability. And it […]

Austin’s Ambitious Plan to “Cut and Cap” a Downtown Highway

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 1, 2013 | 18 Comments

Since it was built about 50 years ago, Interstate 35 has been an enormous physical and psychological barrier through downtown Austin. Partly elevated, partly sunk, it’s the dividing line between what locals refer to as “east Austin” and plain old Austin. It’s also a major NAFTA trade corridor that carries 250,000 vehicles a day, and is […]

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