CITYBUILDER

CITYBUILDER

Durham

Freeing Durham of the Durham Freeway

Could the city expand its downtown and restore its grid?

Dave Olverson
Dec 10, 2024
∙ Paid

Infrastructure spending is coming to the country. I will be honest, I have not yet dug in to what that means and what it could mean for Durham. I do know that I have heard more and more rumblings about highway removal. CNU recently released their latest Freeways Without Futures report as well.

I have previously written about the two dividing lines in downtown Durham, the train tracks and the freeway. These two gashes separate and isolate important parts of our city. For quite a while, I have wanted to explore in more detail, what converting the downtown portion of the Durham Freeway to a boulevard would look like.

I am not a trained urban designer. I am not an engineer. I have a master's in planning, but have never actually practiced planning in the real world. So why am creating a series exploring design, economic implications, and local impacts of a freeway conversion? My HOPE is that much more talented people will see this series and decide it is worth putting their time and energy i…

User's avatar

Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of CityBuilder.

Or purchase a paid subscription.
Dave Olverson's avatar
A guest post by
Dave Olverson
Subscribe to Dave
© 2026 CITYBUILDER · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture