DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – Efforts have been underway since 2013 to get rid of aging Interstate 375 in Detroit. Now that the effort has been repackaged as a plan of equity, the project has been green-lighted and $104.6 million in federal funds have been earmarked by Secretary of Transportation’s Pete Buttigieg for the $300
million project.
The freeway will be replaced by a street-level six-lane boulevard that will reconnect surrounding neighborhoods with amenities such as new bridges, traffic-calming measures, LED lighting, wider sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes and more in what politicians hope to be a thriving community full of shops, restaurants, homes and pedestrians. Construction is scheduled to start in spring of 2027 and be completed in 2030.
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Originally rejected by Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 because the project didn’t fit within her road bonding plan, the proposal gained new life earlier this year to replace the mile-long connector between Jefferson Avenue and I-75 in an effort to fix what Whitmer’s March press release called an “unjust legacy” of freeways.
Associated Press reports this as the first Biden administration grant awarded to tear down a “racially divisive roadway.” Buttigieg told the AP “with these funds, we’re now partnering with the state and the community to transform it into a road that will connect rather than divide.”
Built more than 50 years ago, the I-375 freeway opened in 1964 as part of the creation of the interstate highway system. It displaced more than 130,000 people in two predominantly black neighborhoods, Black Bottom and Paradise Valley. To put in the freeway, hundreds of houses, churches, restaurants, barbershops, drugstores, jazz clubs and other small businesses were demolished.
Whitmer says of the project, “Now we must build up our state’s infrastructure with equity at the core. While we cannot change the past, we must work harder to build a more just future…”
Advocacy groups say that they hope that the project will inspire other efforts that are underway to dismantle more highways. There are more than 50 grassroots efforts in the country to remove or repurpose highways.
Ben Crowther, advocacy manager for America Walks (advancing walkable, equitable, connected and accessible places across the U.S.) and coordinator for the Freeway Fighters Network (coalition of public and private sector leaders to champion design, equity and policy principles that center people before highways) says the new federal focus on equity is a “lot of inspiration for local groups.”
However, Sam Riddle, political direct of the Michigan National Action Network and a longtime resident of the area, says that he thinks the project is going to repeat the same mistakes of the past and that people in majority-black Detroit will be priced out of the market. He thinks money and time are better spent on affordable housing for the community
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