DETROIT (WXYZ) — Another major makeover could reshape Detroit in the future, and a study just got some major funding.
You have probably heard of the I-375 project by now, where the city is hoping to fill it in and create a boulevard connecting the Lafayette Park neighborhood that replaced Black Bottom with Greektown and downtown.
Now, a transformation of I-75 is in the very early stages of development, which would reconnect Midtown Detroit with the rest of the city.
I talked with Detroiters about how they feel and the CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.
“The highway, you know, system in the 50s and 60s did. Is it disconnected a lot of communities,” said Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.
In Detroit's case, the construction of I-75 split the city back then. Flash forward to today, Detroiters are speaking up about wanting a change.
“I was just telling him how much I didn’t want to cross the freeway with (my dog) and make it a whole big thing to go downtown with him, but I think if it was a little less imposing to cross over the freeway,” Detroiter Katie Friedman said.
That is exactly what Detroit stakeholders are hoping to do.
“We're actually looking at a creative application of technology that's been used in other parts of the country,” Larson said. “Where we would actually create a park deck. So, it's a capping of the expressway as opposed to either removing it or raising it.”
The Downtown Detroit Partnership points to examples like Dallas. And now, the city has funding to explore it.
“So, we have roughly $5 million or, I'm sorry, $5.5 million of funding to help us with this study. And the study will really focus on one, you know what's possible. What does engineering look like? You know, what would it cost to do something like this? So, we know sort of what we would have to raise. And then a lot of community engagement. So, what does the community really want?” Larson said.
The funding is coming from:
- $2 million in grant cash from the federal Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Grant Program
- $1.9 million from federal budget
- Kresge Foundation Grant
- Ilitch/ District Detroit
The early indications are that the community wants this project to happen, especially those traversing the freeway already.
“I think it would be cool. I hope they do something interesting with it rather than just like more kind of this dead zone of parking lots in this area specifically," Detroiter Kavin Withrow said.
I asked, “What comes to mind specifically? Parks or something like that?
“Yeah like green spaces, maybe more like outdoorsy stuff?” Withrow responded.
“I feel like it makes a really big divide between downtown and Midtown, and if it was more green space and a little quieter and less scary to cross over, I think you get a lot more people enjoying Midtown and downtown and traveling between the two,” Friedman said.
Once the study is complete. Larson says DDP hopes they can take it and apply for federal construction grants by 2024 or early 2025.
This project likely happening just behind the I-375 transformations.
