MDOT moving ahead with plan to rip out I-375 freeway, restore surface street

After years of study and debate, the Michigan Department of Transportation is moving ahead with plans to rip out Detroit's I-375 expressway and restore a surface street there.

It won't happen overnight. The soonest MDOT might move ahead is about 2022, provided details are settled and funding arranged.

But the commitment to remove I-375 and restore a surface street puts Detroit firmly in the ranks of cities trying to undo the damage done a half-century ago by ramming high-speed freeways through urban neighborhoods.

In its place, MDOT would create a surface street with landscaped medians, bicycle lanes and other amenities.

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I-375 runs south from I-75 along the east side of downtown. The creation of I-75 and I-375 a half-century ago destroyed the historic African-American neighborhood known as Black Bottom, an episode that remains a painful memory for many older black Detroiters.

MDOT first began talking about turning I-375 back into a surface street four years ago. Built in 1964 at a cost of $50 million, I-375 runs for slightly more than a mile along Detroit's east side and is now reaching the end of its useful life.

Technically, MDOT is down to two remaining options, both variations on the theme of restoring the surface street. Both would involve creating travel lanes for vehicles on a surface street with landscaped medians, protected bicycle lanes and new lighting.

MDOT hosted an open house for the public from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Outdoor Adventure Center at 1801 Atwater on the east riverfront to show residents what's in store.

Removing I-375 would mark the first of metro Detroit’s many expressways to be ripped out and replaced with a surface street. But multiple other cities have done that already, including Seattle, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Portland, and international cities such as Seoul, South Korea, and Madrid, Spain.

At mid-20th Century, urban planners believed that high-speed freeways were essential to creating efficient, modern urban areas. Cities everywhere pushed expressways through their older street grids. But, in hindsight, expressways did incalculable damage to cities like Detroit, destroying viable neighborhoods and facilitating the flight of residents to the suburbs.

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Planners today take a different attitude, valuing pedestrian street life and walkable neighborhoods over the movement of cars and traffic.

With that in mind, removing I-375 is simply one more step toward rethinking all the mobility options for Detroiters. Other steps in that progress include the creation of public transit options like the QLINE and the creation of bicycle lanes on city streets.

Over the next year or two, MDOT will try to resolve the remaining questions, including the cost, which requires further study. It is roughly in the $50-million range. MDOT is also working on how to configure the interchange between I-75 and what is now I-375 once the expressway is removed.

But questions aside and acknowledging that it's not going to happen for several years yet, MDOT is moving in the right direction.

If you design cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you design cities for people and street life, you get people and street life.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.