Highway Removals
The Limitations of ‘Reconnecting Communities’
The Biden administration has pledged to correct the damage imposed on communities by highways and infrastructure, but many projects are only committing to minor improvements, not transformative changes.
Healing a Neighborhood: Amy Stelly’s Efforts to Tear Down the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans
Amy Stelly’s childhood dream was to remove the highway that devastated her neighborhood. Now that those efforts have gained traction, institutional biases remain as much of a barrier to neighborhood healing as the highway itself.
The Case for Urban Highway Removal
Instead of removing urban freeways, which have proven to be destructive to communities and economies—in some cases deliberately so—many cities are expanding freeways in and around cities.
Removing Urban Highways Can Improve Neighborhoods Blighted by Decades of Racist Policies
More money from the infrastructure bill now moving through Congress should go toward dismantling racist infrastructure in the United States, according to this article.
Columnist to Dallas: Tear Down That Freeway
Freeways have been removed before, but if the Texas Department of Transportation decides to tear down the I-345 freeway in Dallas, it would reflect a massive sea change in urban transportation planning.
15 of the 'Worst Highways in America'
The Congress for the New Urbanism's "Freeways Without Future 2021" report leverages the current political moment by spotlighting 15 U.S highways for removal.
Undoing the Destructive Legacy of Hartford's Interstates
A new plan would spend an estimated $17 billion to remove a huge chunk of the Interstate Highway System's footprint in Hartford, Connecticut.
Economic Justice Includes Highway Removals
A $435 billion "economic justice" bill proposed by Democrats in the U.S. Senate includes $10 billion for projects that remove highways and build community-oriented assets in their place.
Detroit Highways: Tear Them Down
Urban planning decisions about highway placement in Detroit damaged Black communities. Nithin Vejendla shares an opinion about how to address this legacy and move toward justice.
Removal Over Reconstruction: Rectifying Crumbling U.S. Highways
Successful urban highway deconstruction projects have swapped highways for boulevards and saw economic, public health, and urban design benefits. Will more cities opt for highway removal programs over reconstruction?
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.
Friday Eye Candy: Painting to Memorialize Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct
Finding beauty, and questions, in the concrete.
Caltrans
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
City of Orange
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Montrose County
Wichita-Sedgwick County Metropolitan Area Planning Department
City of Lomita
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
