Freeing Durham of the Durham Freeway

Could the city expand its downtown and restore its grid?

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…