CNU's Top-Ten List Of “Freeways Without Futures”
What do the Alaskan Way Viaduct (Seattle, WA), the Sheridan Expressway (Bronx, NY), the Skyway and Route 5 (Buffalo, NY), Route 34 (New Haven, CT), the Claiborne Expressway (New Orleans, LA), Interstate 81 (Syracuse, NY), Interstate 64 (Louisville, KY), Route 29 (Trenton, NJ), the Gardiner Expressway (Toronto, ON), the 11th Street Bridges and the Southeast Freeway (Washington D.C.) have in common? They all made CNU's* top-ten list of “Freeways Without Futures.” From today's announcement:
"San Francisco, Portland, New York City and Milwaukee have all seen how the removal of freeways allows the rebirth of great city neighborhoods – with improved surface streets, better parks, renewed attention to pedestrian and transit amenities, plus an infusion of new private investment bringing housing, shops, restaurants and exciting cultural offerings. Traffic has redistributed efficiently in all cases. Now CNU is identifying 10 cities that have the greatest opportunity to repeat this success."
Pinpointing Buffalo's issue:
"Despite calls for redevelopment of this area, the NYSDOT selected to retain the embanked Route 5 (and reinforce it with new ramps) instead of replacing it with a surface boulevard supporting an urban street-and-block network, even though a boulevard-only option was deemed viable in the project's environmental impact statement. NYSDOT's current plan leaves aside the fate of the Skyway Bridge, but its decision to retain the embanked Route 5 will necessitate that the Skyway Bridge be replaced by a similar, high-speed expressway facility. It also rebuilds and reconfigures an access road adjacent to the embanked freeway, resulting in a total of 8 lanes of roadway with a right-of-way width of 214 feet. The agency's designs, which leave waterfront access highly restricted and promote auto-dependent land uses, set the stage for limited reinvestment on the waterfront."
Read the entire announcement here.
*Congress for New Urbanism
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Comment Options
kooksapalooza
people actually research this?
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onestarmartin
yet another [if a somewhat obscure] bottom 10 list for us to be on.
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TownLine
Very important point in there that I think Riverkeeper seems to miss out. The boulevard needs to be connected to an urban street grid on the outer harbor. Everything I've seen from Riverkeeper seems to support just putting in a Boulevard and developing directly on that arterial. Honestly, that will be little different from the elevated expressway, except without the embankment. I agree, in that case, that it will turn Rt. 5 into Transit Road. To really encourage good urban development on the outer harbor, there has to be a street grid, not just a blvd. There is plenty of room to develop new city blocks and smaller parcels. This will allow for a high density of housing, office and retail. Putting just a boulevard out there will just spur a few large, sprawling projects, with maybe a housing tower. It won't be a walkable urban neighborhood. Streets, crossings, blocks and small parcels are vital, if a vibrant waterfront neighborhood is desired.
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jvgriffis
Uh... so Buffalo sucks, but we can't have it turn into Transit Rd because.... wait, why the hell can't we turn it into Transit Rd? Do we LIKE empty vacant lots and no commercial development at all?
Beggars can't be choosers.
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sweeper
Very true TownLine, but the first step in making any of that happen is removing the expressway. As development requires it, streets will be built, and grids will reconect.
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bison716
THE FUTURE [CAN] LOOK ALOT BRIGHTER!!!
www.ranwebber.com
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sally
The Outer Harbor has not developed because Buffalo is a depressed city. If the being next to an elevated highway was the sole reason for the lack of development then there would also be no development in the Waterfront Village which is also isolated and next to an elevated highway.
Once the local economy shows a little more strength the outer harbor will develop with or without the Skyway being torn down.
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TownLine
Boy you're right, there are no empty, vacant swaths of land along transit. The transit-road style parking lots really fill things in nicely.
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TheNextMayor
Higgins & Brown should be very proud. Their foolish decisions have made the Top 10.
I wish the thunderous roar of the returning creative class was as loud as the traffic on the elevated highway....
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sally
Top ten ? Out of how many. My guess is that it is in the top ten because there were only ten nominations. There was no research behind this list whatsoever. All that was needed to make the list was a desire to be on it.
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KenS
WOW! The Skyway/Rte. 5 made the all important CNU list! Just the facts...the CNU is some obscure group that if it wasn't for BRO, I would be with 99.999 percent of the population in that CNU would be unknown.
To put it in perspective, this list has about as much impact as Gaustad's "things that will never happen in Buffalo" list. lol
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