Riverview-Plaza

Aerial photo of Mercer County Waterfront Park and the Riverview Plaza office complex in Trenton along the Delaware River

(Martin Griff | Times of Trenton)

TRENTON -- A group has named Trenton's Route 29 to its top 10 list of "Freeways Without Futures," saying the highway should be torn down to make way for a more pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

Congress for the New Urbanism, a nonprofit based in Chicago and Washington, D.C., says highways like Route 29 do significant damage to their cities by isolating neighborhoods and creating barriers to opportunity and connectivity.

The report calls for Route 29 and nine other highways across the country to be removed when they reach the end of their lifespans.

"Replacing urban expressways with surface boulevards improves traffic distribution while saving tax dollars and adding value to local tax bases," said John Norquist, the group's president and former mayor of Milwaukee. "Research has shown that removing in-city freeways makes residents healthier, strengthens local economies, opens up land for parks, creates opportunities for development and can even ease local traffic problems."

In the 1950s, the state bought a large portion of Stacy Park -- the city's connection between downtown and the Delaware River -- and built a four-lane highway in its place.

But redevelopment plans dating as far back as the 1980s have called for the highway's removal. The city's master plan envisions reconstructing Route 29 into an urban boulevard and replacing surface parking lots with mixed-use development.

Last July, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission awarded a $100,000 grant to the city's Downtown Trenton Waterfront Reclamation and Redevelopment project. The funding will be used to identify studies, review FEMA regulations and develop a market analysis and promotional materials for the project.

"A surface boulevard replacement for Route 29 could lay the groundwork for a vibrant, connected new waterfront neighborhood, all while allowing for environmental restoration and innovative stormwater management," CNU's report said.

The other highways that made CNU's 2017 "Freeways Without Futures" are Scajaquada Expressway in Buffalo, N.Y.; I-345 in Dallas, Texas; I-70 in Denver, Colo.; I-375 in Detroit, Mich.; I-980 in Oakland, Calif.; Route 710 in Pasadena, Calif.; Inner Loop in Rochester, N.Y.; I-280 Spur in San Francisco, Calif.; and I-81 in Syracuse, N.Y.

Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.