In the infrastructure bill, a measure that could address racial bias in highway planning

There is magic buried deep within the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is accepting applications until Oct. 13 for a pilot grant program to help reconnect communities harmed by transportation infrastructure. The Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program seeks to redress some of the social, economic, and environmental harm caused by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which spurred the creation of the interstate highway system we have today.

Across the country, highways were built, in part, as a component of a post-war national defense system. In reality, they all too often served to displace and marginalize low-income communities of color and accelerate white flight to the suburbs as they choked our cities and countryside with ribbons of high-speed roadways.

The funds available through the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program can be used to help plan projects that, as the name suggests, foster ties between otherwise disconnected parts of our region. This could mean taking down highways that cut communities off from other parts of the city. It could mean adding rapid bus service to previously underserved communities. And it could mean building parks and trails atop existing highways and railroad beds as a way for green space to serve as a connector of both people and wildlife. The funding can also be used for projects already planned that meet the objectives of the program.

» READ MORE: 7 dream projects to improve Philly under the new infrastructure bill | Rebuilding Philly (from November 2021)

In Philadelphia, we could benefit greatly from rethinking the highways that engirdle the city.

Think about the negative impact that I-95 has on access to the Delaware River. For decades, communities up and down the waterfront have had little to no access to the riverfront. I led the 2006-2007 civic visioning process for a 7-mile stretch of the river that called for sinking portions of the highway (think Boston’s Big Dig) to create a more seamless connection between the river and its surrounding communities. While the bulk of the highway will be rebuilt in place, a $225 million, 8-acre park has been designed and funded at Penn’s Landing that will span a small portion of the highway and serve as a catalyst for private development.

Think about how Chinatown was cut in half by the creation of the Vine Street Expressway. This east-west artery could be fully capped to create a unified connection for the sections of Chinatown on each side of this divide, while also creating development and open space opportunities on the surface to ensure a more vibrant street life.

In Fairmount Park, where the Schuylkill Expressway cut out a 400-acre swath of parkland in West Park in the 1950s, communities adjacent to the park were left with little to no access to the river. The 2014 New Fairmount Park plan called for elevating the highway to allow people and wildlife to move easily from river to uplands and back again.

» READ MORE: Spurred by the pandemic, a renewed call to protect the city’s waterways | Rebuilding Philly (from November 2021)

But perhaps the most pressing area that could benefit from this pilot program is the portion of the Schuylkill Expressway on the eastern side of the river as it passes through the neighborhood of Point Breeze. This area is adjacent to the 1,400-acre former oil refinery that is being developed by Hilco Redevelopment Partners into the Bellwether District, with plans for both life sciences and logistics uses. Because the expressway is not elevated in Point Breeze, it is easy to imagine creating a boulevard in this area and allowing people and traffic to connect with this enormous and important development site on the Schuylkill, as envisioned in the 2020 Vision for the Lower Schuylkill.

This list is but a small number of projects one could imagine benefiting from the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program. All of them should be considered, in conjunction with expanding our public transit system to reduce the demand on our roadways. Crucially, all of these projects must be predicated on robust civic engagement — something which was not done when the highways were planned and built.

Let’s uncork the genie in the bottle and think big, Philadelphia. Highways are big and costly pieces of infrastructure, and they must be rebuilt every 50 years. Let’s begin to heal the social, environmental, and economic damage wrought by antiquated planning policies and connect all of our citizens to the riches that Philadelphia has to offer.

Harris M. Steinberg is the executive director of the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University.