Removing Freeways

[Detroitnerd]

Remove I-375. Remove the Lodge south of I-94. Cap I-75 for a few blocks to better connect downtown and the mid-city area. Divert through traffic around Detroit. Seem to be good suggestions.

[iheartthed]

The dowtown freeways could never be covered without having bypass routes to handle all the truck traffic. Most tunnels and covered roads do not allow many hazardous and flammable cargos. Many of the more dangerous loads are confined to having to stay on certain routes so you would need a way for this stuff to move into,through or around the city.

They probably shouldn't be allowing hazardous and flammable material through downtown anyway. Anyone remember when that truck crashed on the Fisher to Chrysler interchange and melted the overpass? Happened the same year that Comerica Park opened...

[Gistok]

It just happens to be the freeway that least impacts me.... I don't see any of them disappearing anytime soon...

As for wonderful neighborhoods dying... I doubt that any neighborhoods died building I-94. They did it in such a way that it didn't cut the huge swaths that the Jeffries took out. And it was done in a way that didn't destroy the Harper Ave. retail district [[that however is happeningly slowly ever since without the freeway's impact)...

[ghettopalmetto]

They probably shouldn't be allowing hazardous and flammable material through downtown anyway. Anyone remember when that truck crashed on the Fisher to Chrysler interchange and melted the overpass? Happened the same year that Comerica Park opened...

What are you talking about??? Everyone KNOWS that fire isn't hot enough to melt steel!

Oh wait...that's another thread.

[Augustiner]

And it was done in a way that didn't destroy the Harper Ave. retail district [[that however is happeningly slowly ever since without the freeway's impact)...

I would be surprised if the two were entirely unrelated. If you build an expressway right behind a retail district [[that is to say, between the retail district and its prospective customers on the adjoining residential streets), decline would seem to be a fairly natural and obvious result.

[RO_Resident]

375 is the only freeway to be built with europave. The cost to rip that out would be outragous.

Wrong section. The Euro-spec section is NB I-75 from I-375 to ~the Warren ramp.

[eastland]

And for the other rank and file employees in the Ren Cen to get to their homes in Northwest Detroit, Warren, Dearborn, and any other neighborhood or suburb.

Don't try to make this thread about putting down the evil unsustainable suburbs or those God awful evil rich executives who live there.

DC -- my comment wasn't about putting down the evil suburbs or the evil rich executives. It was the truth:

In July 2000, the Michigan DOT proposed a three-block extension of I-375, moving its terminus further south. This would better serve the waterfront area, including the Renaissance Center [[GM headquarters)

[DetroitPlanner]

Wrong section. The Euro-spec section is NB I-75 from I-375 to ~the Warren ramp.

Slaps his head and says: "Doop!"

[BrushStart]

"No, shut them all down!"

[Gistok]

I would be surprised if the two were entirely unrelated. If you build an expressway right behind a retail district [[that is to say, between the retail district and its prospective customers on the adjoining residential streets), decline would seem to be a fairly natural and obvious result.

Augustiner.... I moved to the area near Harper & Morang back in 1960... and Harper was a thriving commercial district for decades. Of all the Detroit freeway expansions the Harper/I-94 was likely the most successful [[unlike the Jeffries)... and 40 years later the commercial strip and neighborhood finally started being hurt by urban blight, not the freeway. Perhaps the large number of roads and pedestrian bridges that cross I-94 along the Harper route help as well... and making Harper's commercial route similar to a service drive along much of the meandering east side route, actually helped instead of hurt that stretch.

[iheartthed]

It just happens to be the freeway that least impacts me.... I don't see any of them disappearing anytime soon...

As for wonderful neighborhoods dying... I doubt that any neighborhoods died building I-94. They did it in such a way that it didn't cut the huge swaths that the Jeffries took out. And it was done in a way that didn't destroy the Harper Ave. retail district [[that however is happeningly slowly ever since without the freeway's impact)...

A couple of years ago someone on here posted a before and after of the I-94 and Lodge interchange. The interchange alone looked like it wiped out nearly a square mile of previously development land...

[Detroitnerd]

A couple of years ago someone on here posted a before and after of the I-94 and Lodge interchange. The interchange alone looked like it wiped out nearly a square mile of previously development land...

Yeah, probably about four or five blocks were ripped out to make that interchange, and old-fashioned "diagonal" that is actually pretty economical as a footprint. It was crowded with houses. They must have ripped out scores of homes to build that thing.

[missn]

The average simple cloverleaf intersection covers about 40 acres.

[Hermod]

The average simple cloverleaf intersection covers about 40 acres.

Cloverleaf doesn't work to well for two interstates. There is too much "weaving" between the entering and exiting traffic on all four corners.

Lodge-Ford tried to eliminate this with the left exits for left turning traffic. That introduces its own weaving problems.

Ford-Chrysler, while far more expensive and complicated, is built as a "pinwheel" intersection to eliminate weaving.

[Hermod]

Yeah, probably about four or five blocks were ripped out to make that interchange, and old-fashioned "diagonal" that is actually pretty economical as a footprint. It was crowded with houses. They must have ripped out scores of homes to build that thing.

Detroit's problem today is caused by a "shortage of homes"???

[Detroitnerd]

Detroit's problem today is caused by a "shortage of homes"???

You amuse me, Hermod. I don't have a total lock on what has caused Detroit's problems today. But, yeah, maybe it wasn't such a hot idea to rip down thousands of homes, hundreds of businesses, scores of apartment buildings and dozens of industrial facilities to build a car-only system of transportation. Just sayin'.

[Brian1979]

I'd get rid of 375 completely. I'd also get rid of the Fisher between I-96 and the 375/75/Gratiot interchange.

Mine as well take 75 out all the way up to 94.

[Brian1979]

They probably shouldn't be allowing hazardous and flammable material through downtown anyway. Anyone remember when that truck crashed on the Fisher to Chrysler interchange and melted the overpass? Happened the same year that Comerica Park opened...

I remember a fuel fire at 94 and 75 about 15 years ago, I had to go downtown for an appointment three days later and could still smell the fuel. The blackened bridge was there for years after this happened.

[Russix]

In lieu of removing freeways, how about addressing the urban connectivity problems they have already created and prioritize transit funding?

[313WX]

Detroit will probably have to begin shrinking its freeway and main throughfares [[at least the inner city ones) if our population decline doesn't ease. Our roads simply don't have the same traffic volume they did in the 1950s - 1970s.

We've already shrunk Van Dyke & Gratiot about one lane. Then of course Livernois was shrunk about one lane when the median was placed.

[TKshreve]

It just happens to be the freeway that least impacts me.... I don't see any of them disappearing anytime soon...

As for wonderful neighborhoods dying... I doubt that any neighborhoods died building I-94. They did it in such a way that it didn't cut the huge swaths that the Jeffries took out. And it was done in a way that didn't destroy the Harper Ave. retail district [[that however is happeningly slowly ever since without the freeway's impact)...

My father once told me that the Links of Chandler were shortened due to the creation of I-94. They're short enough now imo.

Also, my mom used to do business over there with an upholstery shop on Harper near Connor/Chalmers. Not sure if it's still there, but she always said they did a tremendous job. It's a lost art really.

[reddog289]

They could get rid of the Southfield Freeway and it wouldn't bother me a bit. Never did like that ride.

[NorthEndere]

Check out all that the Lodge and Fisher interchange and downtown branches took out:

Over Grand Circus Park in 1929

Downtown 1962 as the Lodge increased the need for downtown parking

Construction of the Lodge 1958 with parking lots already eating away at the urban fabric

[reddog289]

Growing up around here I never really travelled the Lodge. Took Grand River downtown.As a driving adult I never had really a reason too either.

[Gistok]

I realize that this is off topic, but we've pretty much covered the never-gonna-happen freway removal ideas....

Have any of you ever driven along the mile roads in either Warren and Sterling Heights, and seen the HUGE empty swaths of land between Schoenherr and Hoover Avenues, that contain the large power grid high rise electrical antennas?? That always seemed like a vast waste of space that would be wide enough to put a freeway into [[plus service drives) without tearing down a single building!!

Had they ever needed a freeway in the area, that space would have been ideal [[sans the power grid, of course).... with no population loss to either city.

Are there other areas in metro Detroit that have this much wasted space taken up by the utility grid??