I know a lot more about transit than road building, so I wonder how much of this applies, and maybe a road person can chime in. In transit, if you want to make costly service improvements with Federal money, you have to do an alternatives analysis, which basically compares the costs and benefits of various solutions to the status quo. In the case of I-375, the status quo simply isn't an option; the freeway and bridges can't just be left alone to rot. So my suspicion is, MDOT has to prepare some kind of document exploring what seem to be the only two alternatives, rebuilding it as it is or rebuilding it as a surface highway, and giving the estimated costs and benefits of each. I suspect - again, I don't know for sure - that if Uncle Sugar buys in to the process and results, they'll help fund either option.