Highway Expansion
Basics
Syracuse’s Messy I-81 Teardown Fight Shows the Challenge of ‘Reconnecting Communities’
An 11th-hour legal battle over the future of one of America's most talked-about highway teardowns is sparking a debate about what it really means to "reconnect communities" devastated by highway construction — and possibly offering a preview of similar fights on deck in other U.S. cities.
December 12, 2022
Advocates Warn ‘Reconnecting Communities’ Program Could Actually Expand Highways
A massive coalition of advocates is calling on the federal Department of Transportation to make sure a historic fund that could tear down harmful urban highways across America isn't used to expand or maintain them instead.
November 3, 2022
Opinion: Stop Expanding the Damn Roads in Michigan
The recent announcement of a $105-million grant to remove I-375 in Detroit is welcome news. But it also raises the question of whether our broader road spending is leading to a future we want.
October 28, 2022
Talking Headways Podcast: Texas Highway Tangle
Why is there no affordable housing in Austin? The Texas DOT is a big force pushing for sprawl, a journalist finds.
October 6, 2022
Highway Boondoggles, Part VII: Oregon’s Abernethy Insanity
In our final installment of our annual Highway Boondoggles series with U.S. PIRG., we look at bridge widening that circumvented the National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Impact Assessment process.
September 21, 2022
Highway Boondoggles Part V: Duluth’s ‘Can of Worms’
It’s sometimes said that Minnesota has two seasons: winter and road construction. In Duluth, an ongoing, multiyear highway project has sucked up millions of taxpayer dollars on a road that many residents believe shouldn’t even be there in the first place.
September 19, 2022
Mile-High City Halts Two Highway Expansions — And Gives the Money to Transit Instead
Colorado will cancel two planned highway expansions, citing a new climate rule that advocates say should be a model for communities across America.
September 15, 2022
UPDATE: Awful Highway Expansions in Denver and Portland are Facing New Hurdles
Denver and Portland highway projects are being seen for what they are.
May 25, 2022
Freeway Fighters Across the U.S. Are Joining Forces — And They Want You
America's midcentury freeway revolts never really stopped — and now, the advocates behind them are joining forces to create what may be the largest organized national effort to prioritize communities over highways yet.
April 27, 2022
Two Big Reasons States Keep Expanding Freeways
Highway widening advocates offer up a kind of manifest destiny storyline: population and traffic are ever-increasing, and unless we accommodate them we’ll be awash in cars, traffic and gridlock. The rising tide of cars is treated as a irresistible force of nature. But is it?
April 22, 2022
