6 Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever

[Ibanez]

Thought this was interesting. Granted, not much depth to the article, but seeing the before and after shots really makes you wonder what Tulsa could do with a project like this.

http://goo.gl/h2S3io

[SXSW]

The north leg of the IDL would be my vote in Tulsa, but since it was recently redone I doubt it will happen.  Parts of the BA Expressway would be good candidates since it acts as such a barrier through midtown.  Denver had a similar highway (I-25) that cut through the center city and as part of a widening project and light rail expansion they buried the highway and created overpasses to connect surrounding neighborhoods and added the rail tracks on one side for better station access.  Such a project would be transformative in Tulsa.

Seeing the pictures of Seoul with their reopened waterway made me think of Elm Creek which you can see at the lake in Centennial Park.  From there it's buried in a tunnel that runs all the way to river, roughly down Baltimore and through Veterans Park.  Opening up the portion in Veterans Park could create another lake and make the park more of a destination for the surrounding area.

[carltonplace]

Completely agree with popping the top off of Elm Creek.

[nathanm]

We don't have to bury it bury it. Just doing what Columbus did on High Street just north of their downtown would work well in both the Hodge's Bend area and along the south leg. Basically, widen and strengthen the overpasses to accommodate structures on top so that the streetscape is not interrupted. No need to piss off the suburbanites who will be infuriated about it being made marginally more difficult to drive in from the suburbs by actually removing their precious lanes.

[cannon_fodder]

Id be happy to kill the BA - but 150,000 people in BA and east of 169 would be pissed.  Then again, my neighborhood... so too bad. 

A friend moved to San Fran in the mid 80s.  The demolition of the elevated highway is universally praised.  Traffic was bad before, bad now.  But those who really care moved into the city and stopped driving (BART thrives).

We will continue to spend on more and bigger roads, following the outdated and negative example of LA.  It doesn't work, you don't ever win that game.  Carlos has a great cartoon on the topic - congested highways are economic development, mass transit is a wasteful governmental subsidy.

Speaking of highways...  didn't we just redo I-244 a couple years ago?  The stretch from downtown to memorial is already utter crap.  Simply crumbling.  If we have to redo a road every 3-4 years, we may as well give up, go to dirt, and ride horses again.

[Hoss]

Id be happy to kill the BA - but 150,000 people in BA and east of 169 would be pissed.  Then again, my neighborhood... so too bad. 

A friend moved to San Fran in the mid 80s.  The demolition of the elevated highway is universally praised.  Traffic was bad before, bad now.  But those who really care moved into the city and stopped driving (BART thrives).

We will continue to spend on more and bigger roads, following the outdated and negative example of LA.  It doesn't work, you don't ever win that game.  Carlos has a great cartoon on the topic - congested highways are economic development, mass transit is a wasteful governmental subsidy.

Speaking of highways...  didn't we just redo I-244 a couple years ago?  The stretch from downtown to memorial is already utter crap.  Simply crumbling.  If we have to redo a road every 3-4 years, we may as well give up, go to dirt, and ride horses again.

Repave to deck was done from Memorial east.  Downtown to Memorial was simply an asphalt resurface which seems to be done every two to four years.  Never lasts long.  They'll have to redo it completely like it was done to the east of Memorial in order for it to stay somewhat smooth.  But that takes major money and I'm not sure it's in the plan to do in the near future.

[SXSW]

Id be happy to kill the BA - but 150,000 people in BA and east of 169 would be pissed.  Then again, my neighborhood... so too bad. 

Not kill it just rebuild it so that it's not a barrier between neighborhoods, and relocate the rail line down the center to the side for easier access to future commuter rail stations.  It would probably include an extra lane of traffic as well.  Roughly in between Sheridan and the IDL.

I don't see a push for any highway removal or replacement around Tulsa anytime soon.  We're finishing up one of the biggest recent highway projects on I-44, and reconstruction of the IDL is wrapping up.  We don't have any crumbling viaducts like OKC had with the Crosstown. 

Daylighting buried waterways like Elm Creek have a better shot locally but there has to be advocates, and there are no current plans except the proposed canal at 6th & Peoria.

[DowntownDan]

I guess I don't see Tulsa having a highway problem.  Lots of land in the IDL to fill up.  The only real think I could see being nice would be "capping" the southern end of the IDL to connect the 18th and Boston area to inside the loop.  But it doesn't seem necessary since the entire southern end near that area is currently a parking crater.  Would like to see some infill in that part before really considering it viable.

[TheArtist]

Yea if we are going to be throwing that kind of money around for downtown improvement/redevelopment, we could do a LOT more to make our downtown better putting those funds into other things first.  I would still really like to see more low interest loans from the city to help developers rehab these older buildings downtown, ARCO, Service Pipeline, Tulsa Club, Enterprise, etc. to name a few.  Would also like to see some money go to making a downtown Small Area Plan and then zoning. And it might be nice to see a real trolley route from Brookside to Brady Heights with a Pilot Program to start the Town Square turn around point that has been envisioned there. 

[swake]

You can pretty easily cap the south leg of the IDL so it's an underground expressway. The same could be done with about half the east leg.

[Conan71]

You can pretty easily cap the south leg of the IDL so it's an underground expressway. The same could be done with about half the east leg.

With the history we have with road contractors in this area, would you really want to drive underneath concrete put down by the lowest bidder?

Think Becco....

[rdj]

With the history we have with road contractors in this area, would you really want to drive underneath concrete put down by the lowest bidder?

Think Becco....

My thoughts exactly...

I am all for a redo of the north leg of the IDL.  It is a massive barrier between the Brady & Greenwood Districts expanding further north.  While I'd love to see the IDL buried, I doubt the money for that project wouldn't become available in my unborn grandkids lifetime.  We could with some work make the underpasses more palatable for pedestrian traffic.  That would immediately make it more appealing to development.  The first place I would focus would be on Main St moving north past Cain's.  Concert goers already park on the grass lots to the north of the IDL for shows at Cain's but the underpass can be downright scary late in the evening.  If only OSU would give up some of their land in that area and allow Brady to move North...

[Hoss]

With the history we have with road contractors in this area, would you really want to drive underneath concrete put down by the lowest bidder?

Think Becco....

Weren't they the ones that defaulted on the contract that left Admiral between Sheridan and Memorial a mess for almost a year?

[Conan71]

Weren't they the ones that defaulted on the contract that left Admiral between Sheridan and Memorial a mess for almost a year?

That wouldn’t surprise me, Hoss.

[Red Arrow]

No need to piss off the suburbanites who will be infuriated about it being made marginally more difficult to drive in from the suburbs by actually removing their precious lanes.

Make a viable alternate available and we suburbanites probably wouldn't be too infuriated.