Peer analysis of planned I-375 reconstruction proposes design changes

A newly released review of the planned reconstruction of Detroit’s Interstate 375 proposes several alternate designs, including making the area more walkable once the freeway is removed, minimizing displacement and economic impact, while recognizing harms done to Black neighborhoods by the original construction.

The analysis, detailed in a 104-page report for the Detroit Downtown Partnership and funded by the Kresge Foundation, includes several recommendations different from what the Michigan Department of Transportation has proposed. Among them: eliminating the currently planned median in favor of more pedestrian space along the road; putting trees in population-dense areas; and creating an interchange that includes room for homes and businesses rather than just vehicle traffic.

“The I-375 Reconnecting Communities project is at a critical moment of design development,” the peer analysis states. Testing alternative roadway and interchange designs, along with land use scenarios and economic and reparative impact, “has unearthed several near- and long-term opportunities that can inform how project partners and the community can maximize restorative, reparative and reconnective impacts and outcomes created by the removal of the highway.”

MDOT plans to tear up the sunken I-375, update the Interstate 75 interchange and replace I-375 with a street-level boulevard connecting Jefferson Avenue and I-75, lined with businesses and homes. The agency’s goal is to begin work late in 2025, and MDOT has held a series of public meetings about the project.

MDOT Spokesman Rob Morosi didn’t comment on whether the peer analysis will change any of the agency’s plans for 375 but said it appreciates the Downtown Detroit Partnership’s efforts. The partnership oversees the city’s downtown parks.

“Overall, this was a very positive process that yielded tangible improvements to the conceptual design,” said Morosi in an email. “We appreciate the efforts DDP and all our partners put forth on this endeavor. We are aligned in our goal for a project that prioritizes pedestrian safety and connectivity while providing equitable access to neighborhoods and downtown destinations.”

The analysis was conducted by three firms: Urban American City, or urbanAC; Toole Design Group; and HR&A Advisors.

When I-375 was built in the 1960s, 28 local street connections were removed between Mack and Jefferson that connected the city’s historic Paradise Valley and Black Bottom neighborhoods to downtown and adjacent communities. It displaced roughly approximately 2,600 residents and families.

Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, which ordered the peer review analysis of the plans for 375, said he recognizes the need to minimize losses for businesses in the shadow of the project’s construction, a concern raised at public meetings held by MDOT.

“You never, ever want to lose any ground, especially having come off of some of the really challenging years that we have not so distant in our rearview mirror,” Larson said. “And so from a partnership standpoint, we are going to be working just as hard as we do every day on making sure that the destination that downtown has become, the very robust opportunities that downtown represents, continue to be top of mind.”

The analysis details five key recommendations for the possible redesign of 375. They include: designing the boulevard that will replace 375 “for people and vibrant street life, rather than high-speed vehicles”; putting trees where people are; and considering eliminating the median in favor of enhancing pedestrian spaces.”

The partnership’s report also lays out three hypothetical land use scenarios along the reconstructed boulevard, with estimates for the economic and social benefits from each, in terms of measures such as job creation, income taxes and new housing units. One vision prioritizes housing, another focuses on a cultural heritage district and a third designed around sports and recreation.

The analysis estimates a housing-focused scenario, for example, could lead to more than 3,200 units in the heart of Detroit.

The report also includes a 2022 quote from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg about the historic harm done to Black communities by transportation projects, which the Buttigieg said has sometimes been deliberate, and which the downtown partnership said is critical to address.

“…Some of the planners and politicians behind those [transportation] projects built them directly through the heart of vibrant, populated, communities — sometimes in an effort to reinforce segregation. Sometimes because the people there had less power to resist,” Buttigieg said in the report. “And sometimes as part of a direct effort to replace or eliminate Black neighborhoods. … There’s nothing sacred about the status quo.”