Reconstruction of Rochester’s Inner Loop Highway in New York

The con­struc­tion of the Unit­ed States Inter­state High­way Sys­tem in the 1950s con­nect­ed cities miles away from each oth­er. How­ev­er, stud­ies have ana­lyzed how some inter­state con­nec­tions have divid­ed and ripped through poor­er com­mu­ni­ties and com­mu­ni­ties of col­or. One exam­ple includes the Black Bot­tom Neigh­bor­hood in Detroit where a por­tion of I‑375 stands today. These com­mu­ni­ties were phys­i­cal­ly cut off from com­mu­ni­ties on the oth­er side of the high­way. Efforts to rec­og­nize and remove this divide are tak­ing place, how­ev­er, there is still a long way to go with com­mu­ni­ty development.

One exam­ple of works towards bridg­ing com­mu­ni­ties togeth­er again is in Rochester, NY which is sur­round­ed by the Inner Loop High­way. This high­way loop is sunken to the sur­round­ing build­ings and streets and was con­struct­ed in 1964. A por­tion of this loop was replaced with infill devel­op­ment to encour­age down­town invest­ment and con­nec­tion between the two com­mu­ni­ties sur­round­ing it. Pedes­tri­an walk­ways and bike lanes were added and improved and over 500 hous­ing units were con­struct­ed as of 2023 of which 60% are for indi­vid­u­als earn­ing less than the medi­an income. This project received fed­er­al fund­ing and was spear­head­ed by the city of Rochester.

The ini­tial project was com­plet­ed, but it is being expand­ed to oth­er parts of the loop. Com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment pro­fes­sion­als and activists are also work­ing to rebuild the area. While the removal bridged the gap between the two sides of the road, it did not auto­mat­i­cal­ly bridge the social gap between the communities.

Actions tak­en after the engi­neer­ing project were met with mixed inter­ests. The project itself bridged the phys­i­cal divide, but it also brought high­er end apart­ments in its place. There were also no pub­lic green spaces added. Some com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers would rather see vacant lots filled with hous­ing that com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers can buy to build per­son­al equity. 

CEE sub­jects: Trans­porta­tion Engineering

• Should the high­way be removed? Do you think the cur­rent removal strat­e­gy has been effec­tive? 
• What con­sid­er­a­tions should be made when remov­ing a major trans­porta­tion design?
• How can the desires of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers be heard? How can we ensure that changes to a city’s trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture will con­tin­u­ous­ly ben­e­fit the community?
• How can we address engi­neer­ing wrongs from fifty years ago?
• How much should engi­neers be involved in the devel­op­ment of adja­cent projects con­nect­ing to their own project?

• Peer reviewed articles 
  • “Schumer, Gilli­brand tout removal of Inner Loop North.” Rochester Busi­ness Jour­nal, 1 July 2021, p. NA. Gale Gen­er­al One­File, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667611451/ITOF?u=umuser&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f80ba9ac. Accessed 29 Dec. 2022.
• Pop­u­lar media/news references
  • NYT Arti­cle, “Can Remov­ing High­ways Fix Amer­i­can Cities?”