Freeway Lids / Caps / Decks: What They Are, Why We Build Them, and the Ten Best in the US
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 11 янв 2022
- This week's video looks at freeway lids (or freeway caps, "cap and stitches," or freeway decks, depending what part of the US you live in!). Several regions in the US are currently looking at decking over freeways as an alternative to freeway removal, which is politically fraught. This video is a bit of a primer on freeway caps:
- What are they? What differentiates a freeway cap from a tunnel?
- Why do we build them? What are the land use, environmental, and connectivity benefits?
- Where are the leading examples in the United States (yes, this is a top ten list!)
This will be the first in a series to explore existing, proposed, and potential freeway lid opportunities, as well as whether we should be investing in these expensive structures in the first place. Stops on our exploration include:
- The Atlanta Financial Center
- Teralta Park (San Diego)
- Memorial Park (La Canada Flintridge)
- Kansas City Convention Center
- Hugh J. Grant Circle (The Bronx)
- Aubrey Davis Park (Mercer Island, Washington)
- Margaret T. Hance Park (Phoenix)
- George Washington Bridgehead (New York)
- Highway 99 Tunnel (Seattle)
- Capitol Crossing (Washington, DC)
- The Big Dig (Boston)
- Washington State Convention Center (Seattle)
- Gateway Park (Arlington, Virginia)
- Fall River City Hall
- Freeway Park (Seattle)
- North High Street/The Short North (Columbus, Ohio)
- Freeway, Rothstein, and Victoria Parks (Southfield, Michigan)
- Copley Square, Prudential Center and Back Bay Train Station (Boston)
- Various SR 520 lids (Clyde Hill, Washington)
- Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport Runway 5
- Target Plaza (Minneapolis)
- Kanawha Plaza (Richmond, Virginia)
- Old Chicago Main Post Office
- Klyde Warren Park (Dallas)
- Gate Tower Building (Osaka)
- Foglietta Plaza (Philadelphia)
Future videos will look at proposed freeway caps, such as The Stitch and the Midtown Connector in Atlanta, the Central 70 project, in Denver, the I-35 cap in Austin and I-45 cap in Houston, and others.
Other CityNerd videos referenced:
- Freeway-Lite Cities: • The Most Freeway-Light...
- Freeway-Heavy Downtowns: • The Most Freeway-Heavy...
- Ginormous Interchanges of the US: • Top 10 GINORMOUS Freew...
- Tunnels: • Traffic Tunnel Pros an...
Resources:
- Congress For the New Urbanism Freeways Without Futures Report: www.cnu.org/our-projects/high...
- Lid I-5 Project (link to Case Studies page): lidi5.org/case-studies/
- More on City of Mercer Island: www.mercerisland.gov/communit...
Image Credits:
- Klyde Warren Park thumbnail photo by 75316serk - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (RUclips music library)
Twitter: @nerd4cities
Instagram: @nerd4cities
Contact: nerd4cities@gmail.com 
Наука
I read about an interesting side effect of freeway lids a few years back. They have a traffic damping effect. People tend to slow down, the more confined they feel. But I have to give high marks to the lids in Seattle. Having walked thru and enjoyed those spaces for the 10 years that I lived there, I think the secret to their success is their scale. When you're in (or rather on) one of those, the city itself seems to recede into the background.
Lids are only the third-best thing. After not building freeways or demolishing freeways. Speaking of demolishing freeways, can you do a list of those?
Yes, I would like to see a vid on this
Agree!
Is there a story on why demolishing freeways is preferable to using that grade separated right-of-way for other transit? If we're already getting rid of the road there, could we reuse the structure for a bike overpass or greenway walk? Or maybe even run some metro rail through there? I might be missing something about the structural stability of the freeways passes though
I-375 in Detroit is a good candidate. So is the segment of I-75 that passes directly through Detroit, just reroute it along I-94 and I-96 for that span.
@@dlivingstonmcpherson Mostly, it's the structure that's the problem. They're large, ugly, not pedestrian-scaled, and block access between surrounding neighborhoods. Besides, you'd need to retrofit stations. Demolition allows redevelopment, park space, and there's still opportunity to build transit down the ROW. A smaller structure could be used for a greenway.
I really appreciate today's video! I like what you're doing. You are no-nonsense with a little silliness and well-researched topics. You make me laugh and i cry with you when we look at simply wretched examples of urban structure.
Would love a video exploring top most dense / walkable / bikeable towns and cities under 100k-150k pop.
That one is definitely in the pipeline!
I remember seeing footage of the Vine Street Expressway in Philadelphia being flooded in a storm. Made me realize that if they prevented sewage from feeding into it, it would be a great urban canal.
No to metion the destruction to Chinatown the expressway is
The photos from that are just amazing.
There seems to be some momentum to at least try to get money for that from the Biden Infrastructure Bill. Philadelphia is the king of ambitious, forward thinking plans that end up going nowhere because of city and state funding crap (the failure of the Schuylkill Valley Metro haunts me), but maybe there's something there. And plans to finally at least partially cap I-95 seem to be pretty set, inadequate as that is
A great canal or it would be, or imagine if the whole sunken portion was capped with green space/park? It'd be a nice oasis in the middle of the city.
@@sebastienhardinger4149 that sounds like an episode of WTYP waiting to happen, I don't think they covered that project in particular
I'd be interested to see a video on the busiest freight corridors in North America. I was gobsmacked at the sheer number of trucks on the interstates when I was there last month and it'd be interesting to see, both rail and road, the busiest corridors.
It's a great idea! Our freight corridors aren't nowhere near busy enough, because they're all single-tracked, owned by private freight rail companies and the companies employ a stupid concept called "precision-scheduled railroading." Alan Fisher, the Armchair Urbanist talks about these topics a lot.
I remember being terrified the first time I drove the grapevine section of I-5 south toward L.A. it seemed like my car was the only car among lanes full of trucks letting go on the grade with no intention of letting me find my way to the exit lane.
@@peter-b-2889 it's this trip which was exactly what made me think of it. This Interstate essentially carries freight for a population similar to Australia and is 4 lanes wide. For me it was very eye opening!
@@peter-b-2889 Basically you have one of two options on I-5 in my area of NorCal. You drive at 55 between big rig trucks or 80-85 with the maniac pickups and SUVs.
The whole 80-90-94 complex that goes around the bottom of Lake Michigan, so much traffic both truck and regular gets funneled around that choke point. Your only other options for getting around Lake Michigan are the two ferries but neither can take trucks, or going all the way over the top through the UP
This is timed perfectly with TX-DOT changing their plans for I-35 through Austin to a cap-based plan instead of their previous bulldozer happy monstrosity
It's really a shame, the city of Austin wanted to put I-35 underground and develop the space over top as a boulevard with commercial and Residential mixed use up top - the plans were really good and would have begun to reconnect downtown and the neighborhoods East of I-35 in a way that they hadn't been since I-35 was constructed (a highway that was famously drawn up and built to segregate the White and Black parts of town - although that's obviously the case for most highway constructions in reality). Instead now the plan is to actually widen I-35 more, and the compromise is to cap it. Widening Highways famously makes traffic worse, so the real monstrosity is making already insanely disruptive I-35 through the middle of a major downtown area even worse on purpose. At least we'll get a park in between 2 frontage roads of traffic tho
@@himbourbanist out of sight, out of mind
I can't hear you over the sound of the highway! Did you say bulldoze hundreds of homes to make room for a 20 lane highway. That's a great idea. At TXDOT #wearelistening
@Robert Organ exactly
TXDOT wont give up on I45 even though we overwhelmingly dont want that!
I eagerly await this channel's foray into exclusively parkour and parkour-adjacent content.
Related to the video: could I get your thoughts on a 2013 consultant report that recommended against capping/boulevard transition of I-277 in Charlotte? It seems asinine, and their scoring metric seems arbitrarily 'car good', but I'm a planning moron and would like outside perspective. I can email you the link, if you have a few minutes to glance at it. Thanks, Mr. Nerd.
Also, polos out, western cuts in.
Email away! Also, western cuts...now yer talkin
My take on freeway lids, I imagine, is near-identical to yours: they’re the second-best solution to urban freeways, after not having them at all
Thanks for this video, freeway lids need more attention. One overlooked thing about the parking ramp lid example in minneapolis is that because you can enter & exit the ramps directly from the highway, a lot of that traffic never actually impacts the city streets. It especially helps with sporting events at Target Field and Target Ctr both of which are within a block, not many stadiums have zero public surface parking.
Oh I didn't realize there was direct access. That's super interesting!
I’m in Houston but Dallas’ is hands down #1. From a noisy ugly freeway to a center point in the city. I like going around Christmas time they play movies free in the park. I couldn’t believe how many people were there and how much it’s changed downtown. I was highly impressed!
I have to say that I love this list. I think it kind of shows how necessary compromise is. While freeways are incredibly damaging and almost no lid will ever be perfect, they are still important pieces of infrastructure that can provide actual improvement in the quality of life for people on the ground. While it is important to dream big and advocate for meaningful changes, I think too often we lose sight of these important compromises.
@2:11 when you filter the air (and even to some extent when you don’t) when you remove it from the ‘tunnel’ these constructions can really make a difference with regards to particulates. And those have immense health effects.
I apologize if I've missed it, but a video on your qualifications/background would be interesting. You certainly speak authoritatively and you've mentioned projects you've consulted on before, but I'd be very interested to know more.
I've got thoughts about doing a video like that, but the idea of talking about myself for like 10 minutes sounds awful
@@CityNerd you don't need to talk about yourself the whole time, but about the projects you did!
@@jan-lukasyeah, like, are you a public engineer? A TDM expert? What are your creds??
Its great to see San Diego featured on a list. I think we have a hard time appearing on one of these lists because for the most part we are neither exceptional nor atrocious in any way. Teralta park is nice however the last time I visited it was swamped with homeless camps. Such a great idea hindered by the affordable housing crisis.
I think you're sorta right about San Diego. If I do a "best weather" list, though...look out
@@CityNerd I feel like San Diego would feature well on a list of tragic missed opportunities. Definitely a standout in "cities with the absolute best weather for walking/biking but continually screw things up by needlessly prioritizing cars over people"
Great video! Check out Montreal. The Ville-Marie Expressway has been capped multiple times over the decades. It has several skyscrapers built over it and some parks/plazas as well. Bonus: Montreal recently deleted the Bonaventure Expressway and converted it to a boulevard. The Park/Pine street interchange was also replaced by an at-grade intersection some 15 years ago.
another good Montreal example is the decarie expressway... look at where they have some housing and NDG school built on a lid over the highway. I wish they would gradually cover the whole thing, as parkland going gradually north...
I’ve watched many of your videos and it seems like Los Angeles doesn’t come up that often, which surprises me because we’re the center of the universe. I mean, Kansas City, MO is mentioned ALL the time! KANSAS CITY!!
Please do international versions of this as well in which entire neighborhoods in downtown were completely destroyed (like the osaka one you showed.)It makes me feel better to know that we are not alone.
1:23 I used to take the bus through that area pre-COVID, and it took me a while to realize we were going over the 210! Funny seeing my old neighborhood on here.
Mercer Island is rich, but the same I-90 project in the late 80s and early 90s also gave the poor area between Rainier Avenue and Mt. Baker's bored tunnel a similar lid. Both are great parks and keys to the I-90 bike route.
Story idea: Bike infrastructure! Like the tunnel at Mt. Baker, which is a third level of the bored tunnel. Which connects to one of the few bike lanes on a floating bridge (presumably, along with the similar 520 Bridge also on Lake Washington...
Internationally (Canada), you got Montreal who’s not far for finishing the complete lid over the downtown highway. This includes tons of offices, the congress center, the IATA, some parks and more recently the biggest hospital of the city. There is just a small part that’s remain to be cover.
@Zaydan Naufal I think I did a mistake, I wanted to say the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization)
Feedback:I love the Mercer Island shade. And your generally dry sense of humor/deadpan delivery.
For an international take there's a central part of Stockholm that's an infrastructure lasagna of freeways, subways, and bridges. Could be worth its own video.
I think infrastructure lasagna is now my favorite phrase
Oh interesting, I'll check it out.
Singapore has managed to utilize some of the accidental space in the lansgna e.g. building drainage canals & a futsal pitch below a flyover
My hometown of Peoria IL has proposed lidding four blocks of I-74 downtown. It's already a sunken roadway and would be relatively straightforward to cover. It would also reconnect downtown with nearby neighborhoods and add greenspace (the proposal leans more toward greenspace than commercial development).
Being from DC I love how often DC appears at the top of these videos and was really curious if 395 would be on the list because so much of it is decked over and runs under buildings with what i presume are city service vehicle garages entering out onto it which i think is kinda cool but im not sure of I just know lanes form from giant closed metal garage doors as you drive
I think Klyde Warren should have been higher as its such a huge cultural meeting point for the city (esp since Dallas does not have the most urban nature, it really sticks out). I lived in Richmond and I have never heard of Kanawha plaza, its really out of the way of any places (looking at it on the map) to go downtown or Shockoe and the river walk and is wedged between the fenced off federal reserve building and the corporate hq of Dom energy. I never even drove past it and I lived down there for awhile. Good video though, love the topic!
Interesting -- I kinda wanted to rate Klyde Warren higher just on aesthetics -- it's a great looking, well-designed public space! I couldn't figure out how to do that objectively, though.
I was thinking the same thing, should be number 1/2. klyde warren started a new area for Dallas. Since then the city of Dallas has made even more green spaces and parks from ugly old parking lots. And more on the way!!! Dallas is transforming because of klyde warrens massive success!!!
@@JakobDTX So true and the park is expanding over Woodall Rodgers. Klyde Warren Park gets over 1 million visitors a year. That’s a massive success indeed!
100% the insane amount of growth that has happened because of it too is astounding.
I've lived in Richmond multiple times (including currently). If you've ever walked or even driven on 9th St coming off the Manchester Bridge, you're most likely not going to notice the expressway crossing it underneath unless you know exactly what to look for. If you've driven the Downtown Expwy and you drive through a "tunnel", that's the Kanawha Plaza you're driving under.
Thoroughly enjoyed your content so far! I live in Columbia, SC and we are going through a renaissance along with the other SC cities (Charleston, Greenville, Myrtle Beach 🤮) so it’s nice to get an idea on what other cities have done right… and wrong. Thanks!!!
Another excellent video as always Mr. Nerd! Always appreciate the content and I look forward to Wednesdays now to hear what you have to say next.
I'd like to see a video about either your dream projects or your favorite projects that are currently underway.
top 10 freeways almost built/half built/stubs? the kind of thing where the other freeways have 'ghost ramps' and odd little exits that feel like they were supposed to be a freeway but turn into a street. ranked by how big they were and close they were to being started/completed before protests, financial woes, etc stopped them.
Toronto would appear at least once, lol.
Don't be fooled by its name, Allen Rd is mostly a freeway.
IIRC, over here in Chicago there was talk of putting a cap on top of Lakeshore Drive (basically a freeway for some stretches) near a swanky neighborhood. The cap was one of several proposals, I think City Beautiful covered it in his video about Chicago's Lakeshore. Hiding Lakeshore Drive could only make Chicago's fantastic lakefront even better!
While I'm rambling about the Chicago Lakefront, a video about the best/most useful urban bike trails could be fun! Chicago has the Lakefront trail that traverses most of the city's shore along Lake Michigan. It's a great bike ride and used extensively by locals for jogging, biking, dog walking, and more!
Yay! Foglietta plaza lid over I-95 in Philly made the list!
FYI: Foglietta can rhyme with either "Wholly Etta" or "Whole Yetta", or "Ugly Etta".
I believe that (relatively small) section of I-95 was covered over as a compromise to appease community opposition to the then planned elevated I-95, and was eventually developed to include memorials, a park and pedestrian connections to Penn's Landing.
Klyde Warren has been a great addition to Dallas. Has really helped revive downtown, brining the boom of uptown south.
I'm kind of surprised the freeway lids on I-35 in Duluth, Minnesota didn't make the list, they connected the neighborhoods uphill to the waterfront along Lake Superior in a beautiful way
Only vaguely significant one I know about in the country of Autobahns is Schlangenbader Straße in Berlin. It's a huge (by German standards) residential complex, build in the 1970s. That basically exists because planners felt living space was running out in West-Berlin (there was this thing with a wall and all that fuss at the time); I don't think it'd otherwise have happened.
More recently it's been more of a topic in some places but I'm not sure anything too impressive was done yet.
As for the channel ... I got no specific complaints or suggestions. Just, out of mercy, please do keep spacing out the US highway-heavy videos because spending 10 minutes looking at roughly 78 lanes of concrete/asphalt smashing right through a city is tough to view and requires an appropriate period of recovery afterwards.
actually quite an interesting story this one. Its one of the biggest one unit living complex in europe and does also include social spaces like playgrounds and shared living rooms. was designed in the 70s but not actually realized until the 80s (cost A LOT), which is when the whole car fetish of "cool lets build lots of car infrastructure like big daddy usa" already died down again so not so many people found the space that desirable and it suffered from lots of empty flats and decay. got renovated in the late 90s (cost a lot again). all in all quite a failure, looks spacy though (its not really tall, but instead really really long and a cool idea to include social hubs inside a single huge living unit.
Thanks, love your videos. St. Louis has a lid that covers hwy 70 to allow access to the revitalized Arch grounds from downtown. It creates a nice park from the old courthouse museum and the entrance to the museum under the arch.
The lids over the 15 in San Diego are nice, they're covered with parks and playgrounds. They should do the same with the 805, maybe even some sections of the 163. It may be the most cost effective way of adding green space to mid city, as gross and expensive as that sounds. I live a few minutes' walk from it, and now there's a bikeway project connected to it that connects with the Mission Valley river path, which is extra cool. I can ride my bike all the way to the beach from ten miles inland without having to share the road with cars for very much of it.
I really love your channel, one of my topic suggestion is to talk the field of city planning, like how to get in the field.
I knew Southfield, MI would be on this, the project took forever but is so worth it and amaizng
I think the Mercer Island one is definitely the prettiest, and your no.1 is probably the most useful. Probably a better use for these freeways would be to remove them, and then replace them with rail corridors, then deck them over so that you end up with a cut and cover metro system :)
An interesting international addition to the list could be the cover next to Tårnby station in Copenhagen, Denmark. Not really any buildings on it, but its got a skatepark and loads of green space. Also connects the surrounding areas pretty well.
The lid in Dallas is hugely popular.
I was so looking forward to this one and it did not disappoint! I completely forgot how much development in Boston runs over the highway. Great video! Also, polo shirts are pretty cool. Lol.
I honestly had a hard time figuring out how much of the "lid" around the Copley Square/Back Bay area was an original part of the freeway construction, and how much happened after the fact!
Great video, I didn't realize these projects were so prevalent. I've often thought Montreal would benefit enormously from capping the Decarie Autoroute, the gap it tears through Cotes Des Neiges is a travesty and makes it loud and unpleasant to cross as a pedestrian.
I believe all of I-90 in Boston to RT 128 has "air rights" that MassDot can sell. I would expect to see a lot more decking here including the chunk right next to Fenway which has started construction.
Great topic. I would love to see a freeway lid over I-71 in downtown Cincinnati. The interstate completely separates the downtown area from the riverfront and the stadiums. A lid would really improve connectivity and opportunities for parks and development.
More certainly could be done to spruce it up but NJ Route 139 (Jersey City, NJ), which is one of the approaches for the Holland Tunnel, is a sunken highway "capped" by a regular local road. Not flashy, but maintains the connectivity between two key neighborhoods of the city
Please do more of these freeway lids.
Very interesting topic.
Really enjoyed this one.
Gives me hope for cities that destroyed their downtowns by building freeways through them.
Thanks
Minneapolis has another freeway lid over I-94. Hennepin avenue runs right through it and it connects downtown to Lowry hill and the sculpture garden and the walker art center.
I really like the no nonsense approach this channel has. As for a topic suggestion, how about top 10 careers in the transportation industry?
Oh that is kind of an interesting one! I'll add it to the list.
Great video. There was a lid proposed in Toronto over the downtown Gardener Expressway. Named after a politician, not what it replaced because yeah. No, the 5 minutes tearing this freeway down was far too important to the car people so it will remain. I think the wildest proposal was to build a fabric structure over the expressway to save snow removal money & to suck the exhaust fumes out & scrub them. Would have been funky, similar to the Canada pier in Vancouver or the Airport in Denver.
The freeway lid I am most familiar with is the one in downtown St. Louis that connects the Gateway Arch with the Old Courthouse, which together make up Gateway Arch National Park. It covers part of Interstate 44.
St Louis has a lid over I -44 which connects downtown with Gateway Arch National Park and the Mississippi Riverfront. You might have missed it because I think its only 2 blocks long, but it is a nice public space.
Could you do the mug at 7:25 at least every other week? It was funny. Cheers, thanks a lot.
I'm never sure if people pick up on that kind of stuff (or even like it). Thanks!
Great topic! Freeway lids are a financially and politically affordable alternative to outright removal and I approve of anything that hides these asphalt blights from view. As to your fashion sense and video background, it's your channel and most of us are here for the urbanist content, not interior design or fashion advice. Keep on keepin' on!
So you're saying this RUclips channel isn't my path to becoming a fashion icon?? 😭
@@CityNerd To paraphrase Sarah Connor, there is no path but what we make for ourselves.
Another great video. You threw out the downtown deck in Phoenix immediately but I’ve always thought that was a nice way to keep the north & south sides of the city together plus they have the main branch library right there.
Polo shirts, backgrounds & typeface aren’t what anyone is tuning in for I don’t think. Your content & interaction with the viewers are what keeps bringing me back with each new episode.
Good input! I originally had Phoenix on the list until I researched it and found out it was part of the original freeway/tunnel design. Disqualified! But still a cool feature.
In terms of feedback, just to say that I’ve been enjoying all of your videos, so just keep doing what you’re doing!
Thanks! No feedback is actually feedback too!
I live in Dallas and the Klyde Warren Park freeway cap is great. The park has lots of food trucks and you can take the trolley to other places in Dallas.
I'd like to mention the I-44 lid in downtown St. Louis which connects the gateway arch national park to the city's downtown. It's a pretty modest lid compared to many on this list at only one block wide but it does a lot for connectivity in a prime location -- the arch is one of the biggest attractions in St. Louis and was previously very isolated from downtown for pedestrians. Plus, the lid seamlessly connects to the park and now creates a full park corridor from the riverfront through the entirety of downtown. Worth checking out.
100% correct! I was looking for this one in the video, but might be too new or not provide enough connectivity to be worth mentioning since the only place you can really get to is the arch. That being said, you're underselling the arch as one of the biggest attractions in St Louis. It's one of the most recognizable monuments in the world, and it was an absolute nightmare to get to before the recent transformation. You could be standing almost right in front of it with the arch towering over you and have no idea how to get there because I-44 was in the way. The arch was recently upgraded from a National Monument to a National Park - which should definitely help it get noticed. I'm willing to bet it's the only freeway cap in a National Park
As an example from Europe, I would recomend a look at Hamburg in Germany and the "Deckel"for the A7/E20. A project with 3 decks with a length of over 3750m on top of the major freeway conecting northern Europe to central Europe.
I grew up on Mercer Island (a long time ago). I'd never heard of "Aubry Davis Park" until a couple months ago. Everyone just refers to it as "The Lid". I played many soccer games there as a kid.
I can give you two from my recent trip to Germany. Outside the Druisburg railway station and the Dusseldorf riverfront. Interestingly, they have also buried their tramlines. If you wander through Druisburg you can see where the tram tracks used to go before the moved them underground.
I lived in Seattle and Mercer Island is for the rich.
Also lived on Summit on cap hill, I could see the Convention center form my apartment ;love the brutalist architecture.
A bigger lid with more ped access would be amazing.
Nice to see City Heights area mentioned, the 15 cuts right through the neighborhood, I moved out before the lid was built.
It would be interesting to see a video comparing creative land usage in cities with hills like Seattle versus flat places like Kansas City or Dallas or DC.
The sequel could be the top 10 urban freeways that really need to get a lid. I'll start the list with I-277 (John Belk Freeway) in Charlotte,NC between South Blvd. and S. Church Street.
That's definitely where this is headed.
Haha!! The "doggo doggo" moment killed me for some reason.
I'd love to see a video on top 10 Least Used Metro stations in North America in proportion to overall use of the metro system.
Boston had tons of public access. Prudential Center is a mall between all those buildings, and connect to the Hynes Convention Center. NYC of course. People driving under those building don’t realize they’re actually in Manhattan. I know Philly/Penn’s Landing, since I used to park on the river and walk over 95 (we were carpooling!).
Little Wilmington Delaware is considering capping over 95. Typical rip out two blocks of the city to shove in an interstate. Bypass 495 around Wilmington built a few years later. But since 95 downtown is in a little bit of a cut it’s a perfect candidate to be capped and rebuilt as housing I think. Probably some parkland.
Don't change a thing! Love your videos.
I thought this was going to be video on low impact (re)development (LID) for freeways but turned out to be a video on freeway LID lids. I appreciate RVA Kanawha Plaza making the list!
I've been living in the Boston area and did not realize the Prudential Center area was a highway lid, then again, when I think about where Backbay station is this makes a lot of sense.
That being said, it's a phenomenal public space and very well connected. I enjoy randomly walking around there.
It's the closest thing in the US I've experienced to the JR Nagoya Towers.
Oh, interesting comparison! I could've put Boston #1 on here but some of the "lid" was actually built as part of the original freeway construction. Still, though, it's really impressive.
@@CityNerd Yeah, prudential plaza is a mall, connected to a hotel, has office buildings, has condos and apartment buildings, parking, a grocery store, and restaurants all while sitting on top of an Orange Line T station, an Amtrak station, and a T commuter rail station.
Still not the juggernaut that the JR Nagoya Towers are which are basically a vertical city with a transit hub integrated that allows you to travel to most of the country, locally, and regionally with ease.
Prudential was built over the freeway.... Decades before the Big Dig
I love the cut at 7:24, i don't know if it was intended but its a perfect reaction to that ultra random fact
No changes. Keep focusing on the excellent content. All good 👍
I’ve performed music and attended events in Klyde Warren park a fair bit: the experience was quite nice and it was easy to forget I was playing and hanging out on top of a freeway. I had less-than-zero urbanism awareness when I lived in North Texas, but even then it stood out to me as a pretty positive space in a particularly car-choked city. Most of the rest of Dallas is essentially unwalkable
I live in NYC now and have a friend who used to live in the westernmost tower over that freeway lid: out the window was an incredible view of the GWB, the river, the Palisades, etc, especially from the high floors.
That’s about where the positives end, though, as that section of Washington Heights right around the interstate is an extreme car sewer due to drivers getting on and off various intersecting highways (not to mention that Washington Heights in general in one of the most double/triple-parked neighborhoods I know here, sadly despite having pretty good transit access) Occasionally I need to rent a car and wind up driving through that stretch of road and it’s always a terror-inducing experience from a driver’s perspective too - freeways are just so miserable for everyone involved, and should be removed from urban areas like this with haste. I don’t feel like the lidding has significantly stitched the community here back together in a very meaningful way, because on-the-ground it feels to me like there’s a big divide between the two sides of the interstate; however, it’s certainly better than nothing, and the bus depot is a good idea for counteracting some of the car-harm, along with a recently added busway. It’s even more disappointing that the surrounding blocks have a ton of markets/shopping that spills out onto the sidewalks and seems to be a big commercial draw for far-uptown residents; It would be nice to kick out the cars and unleash the potential for an urban market, which you lamented that NYC kind of lacked in your video about that topic
As always: much appreciation for your videos - don’t have any constructive (or un-) criticism to offer
Thanks for the great comment. I went over the GW Bridge earlier this year and just couldn't get over how nasty that area is. It feels a bit weird to me that so much effort was put into fighting freeways in lower Manhattan, etc., but little was done to protect the communities north of Central Park, to say nothing of the outer boroughs.
@@CityNerd absolutely yeah - I’m pretty sure Washington Heights and Inwood were Irish neighborhoods before the White flight era, so I don’t know what role those racial dynamics played in how infrastructure was implemented across the area, but nowadays it’s primarily Dominican, and as a result often feels just like the Bronx, which it is very connected to and experiences a lot of the same issues as. Even the train is elevated beyond Dyckman St, which the rest of Manhattan did away with seemingly long ago. To be fair, the deepest stations in the system are also in Washington Heights, accessible only by long elevator rides, owing to the more dramatic elevation changes (another shared feature with the Bronx)
Not that anywhere in the city is close to being car-free or car-lite, but as I mentioned it’s particularly bad in Washington Heights, Inwood, and the Bronx. I bike a lot, both for fun and function, and it’s noticeably more difficult in the area (the steep hills don’t help!), and some of the most aggressive road rage I’ve been subjected to has been here. The brand new DOT commissioner is from Inwood, so there are some potential signs of hope he may focus on much needed improvements in the area. Did you cross the GWB in an automobile or did you walk/roll? I bike over the bridge a lot to visit parks & restaurants in North Jersey and every time I’m struck by how much space for cars they created on the bridge and beyond, and yet I’m sure you also experienced how it’s mired in traffic at all hours of the day! (loved the video where you debunked its title as the busiest crossing in the world, by the way). Would love to see a full level of the bridge repurposed for rail, walking, and rolling (the scenic views from the currently cramped enfenced walkway could rival the Brooklyn Bridge in my opinion), but I’m sure Fort Lee NIMBYs would mount a fervent anti-rail campaign like the Vancouver WA NIMBYs I grew up with. Sad, because Fort Lee is another community irreparably sliced in half by an interstate that feels as wide as the Hudson River. But even in its current state, I’d say it’s worth a stroll or roll for the scenic value and Fort Lee Historic and Palisades parks if you make it back out this way
@@Tedmund13 Oh, I've taken those long elevator rides! My uncle used to live in Washington Heights. My trip over the GWB this last time was a taxi (Newark to Harlem...long story, don't ask). Would love to bike over at some point.
The Vancouver WA nimbys are mostly unincorporated Clark County nimbys at this point. Vancouver is really coming along IMO! We'll see how Columbia River Crossing 2.0 goes, though.
As a Philly resident I'm glad to see that Foglietta Plaza made the cut
In Glasgow, the Charing Cross interchange goes over the M8 moter way, in recent times they have proposed an extension of this freeway lid across nearly the whole of the M8 from Charing Cross to the Kingston Bridge in order to make a 3rd large Central park in Glasgow (the others being Glasgow Green and Kelvingrove)
An interesting conceptual project that is worth looking at is the reconnect rondo innitiave. It is looking to reconnect the former heart of black St. Paul.
They're in the process of adding two blocks to the Clyde Warren Park in Dallas. It's set to include a pavilion and another playground for the kids.
Also: You should get you a big skyline backdrop like you see in the news.
Could you do a video of the coolest projects you have worked on??? Love the channel!!!
RE feedback on the channel,
* Love the dry humor.
* I get a lot more out of in-depth topics or case studies, rather than the top-10 videos. I know they're good with the recommender algorithm, but top-10 videos with more how/why would be great.
* Like the transit comparisons (HSR vs car vs plane) for a specific trip. Mexico was very funny!
* Label footage with the location.
* More info about how to fix these types of problems!! Especially since you work on infrastructure projects, I'm sure you know a ton about who is actually in charge of a city's/region's transit decisions. What places have made infra changes that are doing well and having a positive impact? Are those changes transferable to other places? How to push for those types of changes in a region, who to contact in your local government, etc
Good Man, got the US Capitol and Richmond freeway lids!
Love the channel!
DC seems to do extremely well on a lot of my lists!
A video for the top ten places to bike for transit would be an interesting video. Cities like Amsterdam & Munich seem so efficient because they have so many bike paths & cyclist.
For the international edition you should check out Madrid's "Madrid Río" over the M-30. Not really a lid but a burying. Immense,spectacular and outrageously costly project that, nonetheless, provided us locals with a fantastic and huge park that has become one of the hearts of the city.
In the Netherlands Utrecht the A2 covering and in Amsterdam the A9 covering are good and recent examples. Also Amsterdam Schiphol airport has 2 caps for airport runways on A4 and A5.
my new favorite channel. I love just going through it and having lots to look at. It is like urbanism and fun.
here is a question I have.
i grew up in a suburb, now I live in a really rural area. It is really different. One thing I didn't realize is how loud it would be because the roads have people driving fast. It is also cool how dense everything is when you get to town you could just live there and walk everywhere. it'd honestly be easier than driving in the downtown because there are all these surface lots that are farther.
but I am interested in ruralism
if that's a thing.
As a Seattle native, I enjoyed the shade thrown at Mercer Island
Outside of the suburban lid that you had in Suburban Detroit (I-696), there is actually a lid downtown. M-10 (John C. Lodge Freeway) goes underneath Cobo-I MEAN TC- I MEAN Huntington Place. Yes, Huntington Place (sorry, the name keeps changing). A convention center. Thanks federal government for the weird freeway situation downtown.
There's a cap in Atlanta over I75/85 downtown, sandwiched between two parts of Georgia Tech campus, but... it's mostly walkway. On football Saturdays, it becomes a tailgating hotspot.
I think the 394 parking ramp cap in Minneapolis is overall a good thing - you can exit directly to the ramp from the highway, which stops people from cruising around looking for parking
Not only that, they were built to incentivize carpooling from the western Metro to downtown. This is done with massive parking subsidies for registered carpoolers by the Metropolitan Council. I used to help administer the program.
I think klyde warren park deserved a higher score, It’s always packed and they just finished an expansion of the dog park, and soon a new Fountain that will shoot water almost 100 feet into the air will be build in the north side of the park, plus a south expansion of the park is already on the work to build a 3 story community center/tourist info, and an ice skating ring next to it during winter and a nice green space for summer, and recently a new restaurant opened on the building inside the park
Yeah, I hear you. Klyde Warren seems more well-loved than others on this list, but I wasn't sure how to do an objective metric for that!
i really wish you would expand your mind to the whole world its actualy intersting for us
nice video, please do more Canada content, thanks
Internationally there are a few examples in Sydney, AU. Nextdoor to the Art Gallery of NSW is a land bridge covering the M1. It was grass parkland but now is a construction site for a new art gallery. In Darling Harbour, the Hyatt Regency hotel is mainly built over the Western Distributor as is part of the 3 tower office complex next door, Darling Park. A cheat, but in the 1960s, they sunk the drive to the airport when they built a runway over the top. It was widened in the 1980s and turned into a freeway-like roadway. These days it is part of the M1.
To flip this video, are there many examples in North America of spaces under elevated, downtown freeways being put to good use?
3:45 Update:
There are plans to extend this cap across that entire 1/2 mile section.
From a PennDOT construction newsletter:
"Lane closures are scheduled [...] for core borings. The core borings are part of advance engineering activities underway for reconstruction to cap Interstate 95 and complete other improvements in the Penn's Landing area beginning in late 2022."
I think they could be really awesome in Phoenix. The central part of the city has a lot of sunken highways that run through downtown or the other denser areas. Lots of areas are divided by them and this could really help reconnect them and give us more green space where it’s lacking
I-980 in Oakland would make an excellent freeway lid. Ideally it would just be removed, but it could also be lidded to reduce the urban damage it causes.
I thought St. Louis deserved an honorable mention with the lid over the interstate in front of the arch. Really improved walking and access to the arch and riverfront
Agreed. I preferred the alternative that would have capped it from Pine to Walnut, but the result is definitely preferable to the canyon separating downtown and the riverfront that was there before.
Yeah, I should've mentioned it. Good newer vintage lid.
I love the font please keep it!
I actually enjoy your channel because it's rather (for lack of a better description) basic in structure. It's like I'm getting a lecture from a college professor. The content is excellent, which is important of course, but your style is also engaging in a way that's both interesting and quirky. And we can all see how much time and research you've put into everything. I like change, too (like Teresa's backstory :), but make the changes in a way that feels right to you.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment!
KC has multiple designs for decks over i670, which I would expect to happen within the next 5 years. Private money has been secured for a little while they’re just waiting on public money (ie: federal funding). There are also designs for a lid over i70 but a lot of people are hoping they can just remove that freeway all together. I could also expect some kind of lid over US 71 on the east side of downtown if a baseball stadium ends up being built there.
Glad those discussions are happening!
On the topic of highway land use change, something I've been curious about for a while (& could probably answer myself with GIS but don't really have time to dedicate to it) is how suitable existing highway alignments are for HSR, in terms of the train speeds allowable for a given horizontal geometry. Having grown up in the DC exurbs & regularly ridden Metro in from Vienna, I'm reflexively skeptical of highway-median rapid transit b/c the station locations are inherently hostile, but for HSR w/ few intermediate stations b/w downtowns my intuition says that's less of an issue. Maybe there's a video exploring the trade-offs of converting highway space into train space, & which North American highways would be best-suited?
Ive tested this in Cities skylines(lol) and it definitely would help with some of the surbuan sprawl in places like LA and connecting the massive cities in Texas.
Interesting. Highway alignments are more or less a no-go between cities where a train needs to operate at max speeds, but inside metro areas and approaching city centers -- maybe? Even HSR are often on legacy track or shared with other services once they get in close to the city center.
@@CityNerd huh, I guess I'm curious why they'd be unsuitable? I was under the impression nationwide guidelines specified minimum highway curve radii for car speeds >90 mph, & that FRA track standards allow a train on superelevated track to exceed that speed by a decent margin on a curve of the same radius. And also that lots of interstate ROWs were already pretty straight anyway.
Is it just that that maximum speed is still only like 110 or 120 mph & we'd prefer true HSR to go faster than the NEC or Brightline?
@@jmchristoph Yeah, the design speeds of most intercity freeways are upwards of 80mph, but of course there are exceptions and legacy substandard designs all over the place -- and a lot of those older designs overlap with the same older corridors where HSR would be most effective (Northeast, around Chicago, etc.). Modern HSR aims to build for 180mph+ speeds, otherwise the travel time advantages start to really erode.
I appreciate this video
It'd be cool if you could do a video on repurpose and restoration of old abandoned railroads. I think there are quite a few all over, besides the High Line.