kbd77 t1_j6kzqyb wrote
This is the logical (and inevitable) conclusion of car-centric planning. I know it’ll never happen and it’s not feasible financially anyway, but burying 95 like they did with 93 in Boston would so drastically improve the quality of life throughout our city.
laterbacon t1_j6l9qgc wrote
It seems like it would be relatively easy compared to the big dig. There wouldn't need to be too much actual digging; most of it is in a trench already and they could just cap it. I'm thinking specifically of the stretches from Point St to Atwells, Smith St to 146, and Thurbers Ave to to Broad St, as well as most of Pawtucket
gusterfell t1_j6lgdau wrote
Cianci proposed doing exactly that back in the 90s, at least for the downtown stretch. I don’t know how much traction the idea got at the time, but maybe it could be revisited.
laterbacon t1_j6lh21c wrote
I made this comparison a while back: https://i.redd.it/fjqd58yj00v91.png
It's sad to think about what the city would be like if the US hadn't gone all-in on cars - look at all those streetcar lines!
[deleted] t1_j6p78cm wrote
As someone who lived a block from the Powell Street cable car line in San Francisco and later a couple of blocks from the N-Judah streetcar line, I can assure you that streetcars are plenty noisy and rather frequent. It’s just a different sort of noise than interstate noise.
laterbacon t1_j6pduzk wrote
The San Fran Streetcars are antique novelties that are loud and rattly. Modern updated rolling stock can solve that problem.
[deleted] t1_j6pe1pw wrote
At what cost to install and maintain though? And would people use them?
Philly ended up ditching most of their streetcars decades ago because people stopped riding them.
And the tracks and electric delivery system in that photo can’t be cheap.
laterbacon t1_j6pf7xg wrote
Philly intentionally neglected their streetcar system. SEPTA is a mess for a whole host of reasons, but the main one is that all the counties involved in it have to all agree on projects. Suburbanites don't want to fund urban transit. That's oversimplifying it, but it's a major impediment to improving transit in Philly proper. Here's a good recent video about the streetcars there (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYXx3CgwmHY)
And people will use transit if it's reliable and frequent. And yes, infrastructure isn't cheap but how much money have we dumped into the 6/10 rebuild and the downtown viaduct on 95? Putting tracks in a street and running wires overhead really isn't very expensive, and the savings in maintenance on vehicles that have no combustion engines, and aren't subject to potholes more than makes up for it. Trams are ubiquitous in most of the developed world, except here. Take a look at the transit networks in places like Bilbao, Bordeaux, or Utrecht. They are all similarly sized metro areas to Providence and it really emphasizes what a joke transit is over here.
Proof-Variation7005 t1_j6l7jjd wrote
I’ve always liked that idea but it’s worth noting the noise impact probably won’t matter much for the majority of the city.
It’d definitely benefit a lot of people in way more ways than noise.
kbd77 t1_j6l862f wrote
Yeah, the noise is frankly at the bottom of the list of benefits we’d get from burying the highway. The biggest improvement would be reconnecting neighborhoods with usable land. I’ll continue to dream about it until it gets built or I die, whichever comes first (undoubtedly the latter).
KennyWuKanYuen t1_j6npf5q wrote
One thing I never understood after seeing videos of people building nature bridges for animal crossings is that why not build pedestrian bridges and crossings that can be utilised over the highways?
In someways, it’s one of the things I like about Mass because you have these areas where buildings and other walkable areas are build over the roads and highways, causing them to dip down a little to preserve the walkable areas.
It’s honestly I’d prefer since as a pedestrian, I’m still near, seeing and hearing cars while having my own walkable area. As a driver, I’d love it because it’d keep people away from the cars and can up the speed limit.
stand-up-tragedy t1_j6mwqzq wrote
I wholeheartedly agree that this would be amazing. My question is. How can we make this happen? What can we do as citizens to start this conversation?
stand-up-tragedy t1_j6mxt4t wrote
Also: recent opinion piece on this: https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2022/09/sender-25-the-highway-divided-providence-a-cap-over-i-95-can-fix-it
Proof-Variation7005 t1_j6p73fl wrote
>What can we do as citizens to start this conversation?
Even though this isn't nearly the same project, I'd start with waiting for most of the people who were alive and aware of the Big Dig to be dead. It'd still require an uphill battle of convincing 80% of the state pay for and endure extra construction on something they won't really see any benefits from, but it might be slightly less impossible of an idea to sell.
stand-up-tragedy t1_j6pbq6v wrote
Although the Dig itself was a fiasco, no one is complaining about how great the greenway is…
There’s federal money available to do just this. It’s a connecting neighborhoods program. If you take a look at the article I linked it says that the time to apply ends 2027 though. So it’s feasible that most of the project could be paid for by the federal government. I’m sure that would ease some of the worries state level even if somebody’s cousin still winds up being the person getting that fed money.
KennyWuKanYuen t1_j6noq0r wrote
Or we could erect sound dampening barriers like they do in CT for long stretches near residential areas.
Leothecat24 t1_j6n30xf wrote
Not that it’s ever gonna happen, but at school I’m in a studio class, and we’re working on a student planning project in the area around Cathedral Square for school, and the city head engineer and head landscape architect are both interested in our projects. My plan is to bury 95 as well (as well as do a bunch of stuff on top but I haven’t gotten that far yet)
ETA: my professor has also mentioned something about a federal bill named the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, designed at making our cities rely less on highways. So perhaps that could be a way forward
Parlor-soldier t1_j6lb6gh wrote
Absolutely, the money embezzled by the construction companies on the big dig went right back into the economy! For real though, look up how much money was stolen.
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