Freeway caps/lids

[wadams92101]

Do freeway caps have a future? San Diego I-15 cap cost $25 million to cover approx. 1 city block 15 years ago. Maybe cheaper now? Sell surface building rights? - maybe $12 mil per block + new prop. tax stream? Waive below ground parking rqts (obviously)? [link deleted]

[Dan]

So far, all of your posts contain links to your blog. I deleted the link. Please understand that participation that is limited to self-promotion of your blog, even though it's planning-related, violates our single issue poster and one-way post rules, and seems spammy. If you want to be a "guest author" or sorts, with one of your articles appearing on the front page of the site, and a link back to your blog, please let me know. Otherwise, please stop posting links to your blog until you've participated in some other threads.

[DetroitPlanner]

Do freeway caps have a future? San Diego I-15 cap cost $25 million to cover approx. 1 city block 15 years ago. Maybe cheaper now? Sell surface building rights? - maybe $12 mil per block + new prop. tax stream? Waive below ground parking rqts (obviously)? [link deleted]

There is nothing cheap about these. We have several along I-696. Maintenance costs are very high as this is passive parkland above. This was done to mitigate the impacts on people walking to Temple. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=oak+pa...+Michigan&z=15

Costs and revenues will vary with the length of both the span and the amount covered. These things use up an incredible amount of materials and those costs are always changing based on market conditions. (however the general trend is an increase).

There is an innovative cap along old US-23 in Columbus that provides retail with covered walkways. It takes advantage of its location right next to the convention center and not too far from OSU. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=columb...lin,+Ohio&z=18

The Columbus one does have a revenue stream, but I am in no position to say that it is enough to cover the entrie cost of the project.

[mgk920]

There is one of these either under construction or recently completed on the Woodall Rodgers Freeway (TX 366) by the Dallas Museum of Art in downtown Dallas, TX, too.

See:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=32.78962,...13797&t=k&z=16
for an idea as to the materials being used in its construction.

Also a more recent and closer-up 3/4 aerial view:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=32.7906,-...03449&t=k&z=18
That's the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank at the top.

Mike

[wadams92101]

Thanks for the references! I'll check those out. This has got to be one of those things where there has to a less expensive way to do it.

[mgk920]

Also look into the idea of 'air rights' above major transport corridors, a very valid concept in highly congested places where space is at a premium and the value of the created space is greater than the cost of creating it. The best examples that I can think of offhand are all of the development that is above the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) in and near Boston (a grocery store even exists over its eastbound side in the west suburbs), how those apartment buildings were built above the Cross-Manhattan Expressway (I-95) in Manhattan, NYC and how McCormick Place is built above that major railroad in Chicago.

Mike

[Richmond Jake]

Another example is Freeway Park over the I-5 in Seattle's central business district.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_Park

https://www.google.com/search?q=free...w=1066&bih=742

[mgk920]

I almost forgot a much closer (to me) example right here in Wisconsin - the Monona Terrace conference/convention center in downtown Madison, WI is built in the air rights above John Nolen Dr (US 151) and a railroad.

http://maps.google.com/?ll=43.071897...13797&t=k&z=16

Also, if/when common-carrier rail passenger service returns to Madison, one of the likeliest places for a Madison station is at Monona Terrace.

Mike

[DetroitPlanner]

I almost forgot a much closer (to me) example right here in Wisconsin - the Monona Terrace conference/convention center in downtown Madison, WI is built in the air rights above John Nolen Dr (US 151) and a railroad.

http://maps.google.com/?ll=43.071897...13797&t=k&z=16

Also, if/when common-carrier rail passenger service returns to Madison, one of the likeliest places for a Madison station is at Monona Terrace.

Mike

Ha! Thanks for shaking the cobwebs loose! I got a couple of those a block from my office!!
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=48226&...gan+48226&z=17

One, like the one in Madison, is under a convention hall. The other is a plaza for the downtown Community College.

RJ, how do they keep the skateboard idiots from destroying the place or from killing themselves?

[mgk920]

Ha! Thanks for shaking the cobwebs loose! I got a couple of those a block from my office!!
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=48226&...gan+48226&z=17

One, like the one in Madison, is under a convention hall. The other is a plaza for the downtown Community College.

RJ, how do they keep the skateboard idiots from destroying the place or from killing themselves?

Another one, the Kansas City Convention Center is built over I-670 in downtown Kansas City, MO.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll...06899&t=k&z=17


Another 'covered' freeway is the cut-and-cover tunnel on I-94 at Hennepin Ave and Lyndale Ave near downtown Minneapolis, MN:

http://maps.google.com/?ll=44.966939...13797&t=k&z=16

Mike