Social Reform Through Federal Highway "Capping" Projects
Two new bridges at South High Street and South Front Street would span the rebuilt freeway. Renderings courtesy of Ohio DOT.
The technique to “cap” highway overpasses is not a new transportation planning/engineering idea, but it should be emphasized as a solution to mitigate the effects of structural racism that has and continues to affect millions of African-Americans and other vulnerable populations throughout the United States. Both elevated and below grade interstate highways serve as physical barriers that divide once thriving Black/African-American neighborhoods.
If the Federal Highway Administration is intentional about assisting our nation’s efforts in healing and reconciling race relations from an overwhelming structure of systemic racism, it shall consider allocating federal capital funds to state DOTs for “capping” projects and programs as a means to correct the agency’s own wrong-doings.
Though there are various strategies to mitigate the adverse acoustic and aesthetic impacts from elevated highways, in recent years, more attention have been given to cost-efficient social mitigation solutions for highways in the below-grade interstate system. Partly or holistically “capping” below-grade highways is used by Ohio DOT and other state DOTs to reduce the vehicular noise and unpleasant aesthetics create by a linear monolith of concrete and asphalt. More importantly, “capping” is seen as a tool to encourage economic growth to a local economy.
Capping, or highway deck parks are a way to create new acreage and/or provide green space that can spur downtown development. Capping a highway to create a park also can reconnect urban neighborhoods sliced apart by the expressway building boom of the 1960s and ’70s.
“When it comes to systemic racism, the United States’ federal government was not only an instigator, but a perpetrator.”
There are many capping projects either complete or proposed throughout the U.S to convert unused air space to vibrant public spaces. A couple of the projects include Boston’s Big Dig to form the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway and a section of Seattle’s Interstate-5 conversion to Freeway Park.
Highway Capping as a Strategy for Social Justice Reform.
The FAST Act (Fixing America's Surface Transportation - Act) was set to expire at the end of 2020, but Congress recently extended it for one more year. The next FAST ACT equivalent should include provisions focused on equity in mobility and surface transportation. A paradigm shift should pressure the United States FHWA to allocate funding towards programs to once again connect neighborhoods and contribute to a vibrant local economy while accompanying proven safety countermeasures to reduce pedestrian, micro-mobile and automobile collisions. Therefore, implementing highway overpass “capping” projects should serve as the agency’s main strategy to rectify previous inequitable it has set forth in environmental justice communities of concern.
When it comes to systemic racism, the United States' federal government was not only an instigator, but a perpetrator. Various federal agencies, including the Federal Highway Administration, have worked to segregate and economically stagnate African American neighborhoods.
Starting in the mid 20th century, car-dependent mobility from the suburbs were prioritized for white commuters to America’s central business districts. As previously mentioned in Racism in Transportation Policy is Inconvenient, Unjust and Can Have Deadly Effects, the federal government, via the federal highway administration, has bulldozed through Black communities as they were deemed lacking any inherent value. Humboldt Parkway, which housed Highway infrastructure was constructed form a top-down approach with little to no community input and environmental reviews, physically dividing poor and middle class Black communities, devastating their social fabric, local economies and self-sufficiency.
“If President Elect Biden and Vice-President Elect Harris are truly intentional about rectifying the wrong doings to Black/African communities, then their administration can start in the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).”
For example, according to A City Divided: A Brief History of Segregation in Buffalo, “the construction of the Scajaquada Expressway occurred at a similar time; however, given that the affected population was primarily white and middle-class, displaced residents had more options and could afford to move to different neighborhoods and the suburbs.62 For the East Side, construction of the Kensington Expressway happened at the same time as several other projects that resulted in residential displacement, and the primarily black population had very little housing mobility; this confined them to other sections of the East Side. As a result of the Kensington and related developments, the poorest, most segregated communities were subject to more air pollution and lost access to services and key institutions like banks and grocery stores”.
Humboldt Parkway was designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted, America’s pioneer Landscape Architect. The Parkway once featured a distinct beautiful tree-lined boulevard. However, after the Federal Highway Administration decided to connect Buffalo’s suburbs to its downtown, the agency eviscerated the trees and surrounding homes in its way to make way for the Kensington Expressway.
From both logical and ethical perspectives, FHWA has helped perpetrate social inequities, economic stagnation, and public health disparities in African American communities and therefore FHWA should provide the funding to fix these aforementioned problems.
If President Elect Biden and Vice-President Elect Harris are truly intentional about rectifying the wrong doings to Black/African communities, then their administration can start in the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). A restructuring and re-purposing of funds in FHWA can and should allocate more funding to MPOs and highway agencies to add highway capping in their capital budget line item as an environmental justice reformation program.
Cost is the Primary Criticism to Highway Capping Projects, but its a Misconception
Depending on the scale of the project, some capping projects can be exuberant, but most, which includes surface mobility safety improvements costs roughly the same as a regular overpass reconstruction project. The Boston Big Dig project cost an estimated $15 billion, but smaller, yet comprehensive projects consisting of 6 overpasses can cost between $300-$700 million dollars, depending on the project’s size. In those comprehensive projects, capping just one overpass, can range from from $53-million to $62-million.
Capping would directly rectify social and physical problems in communities the Federal Highway Administration planned sub-level highway routes. Neighboring communities, too, would benefit from various benefits including economic development and meaningful infrastructure upgrades.
The Obama administration gave deck parks a push, offering a $19 million grant for the Pittsburgh park. Then-Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx in 2016 said that urban highways had exacerbated economic inequality by devastating African-American neighborhoods for the benefit of suburban drivers.
Benefits to a Highway “Capping” Project Include:
Safety corridor improvements
Land use development, creates new space for development.
Old Bridges are replaced or reinforced after their lifespan has expired.
Economic growth through property values
Greater tax base
Environmental sustainability by adding biophilic design elements
Provides a barrier that decreases noise pollution
