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According to this article in the Dispatch, the “grand boulevard” idea for 70/71 has been put to rest. So what does that mean exactly? Well, the next idea on the plate is a series of 10 highway caps, similar to the one built at High Street on top of the 670 underpass a few years ago. This beautification project would be in addition to the re-working of the 70/71 highway configuration and would help to reconnect neighborhoods long divided by the highway scar downtown on the east and south sides.
Comments
- cheap: i highly recommend the Millersport sweet corn festival of course,the cor
- Jimmy Mak: Thanks for the write-up! Just to clarify - this is the third year we've do
- Briana Henry: Well, eventually they plan to add more bands from the region...gotta start
- bucki12: I like the business model, but the internet sales part seems like something
- racheltb: I don't see the Ohio Shrimp Fest on the list. It is truly a good time. h
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Coming in a bit late on this one, but just STOPPING I-70 and I-71 for a mile or two in the middle of downtown Columbus completely undermines the whole Interstate highway system. Part of what IS good about the Interstate system is that when you’re traveling across country you don’t NEED to know all the different local routes. At the very least you’d have to merge 70 and 71 with 270 for that circuit. Nevermind the fact that people who live INSIDE of 270 and need to get to the other side of downtown for whatever reason now have to either go all the way around on 270, or take a surface road which would have both a significantly lower speed limit AND stop lights.
Other considerations — while most everyone today considers the highways “ugly”, remember that when they were put in it was a much wider thought that they were a “sign of the future” and seen as new gleaming signs of progress and a greater America living in the transportation age. This is the America people in the early-to-mid 1900s were dreaming of… issues like pollution, gas costs, sprawl and urban blight didn’t really start coming to the public awareness until the mid-to-late 70s…
Because it most likely wouldn’t work. You even said yourself that the European cities had other modes of transportation available. Our city does not, and to try to revamp the highway configuration and install a brand new light rail system is not going to convert hundreds of thousands of people into different types of commuters overnight.
It would have to done in baby steps. It would certainly increase demand for mass transit without pissing most people off.
Which is why people need to be educated now.
No, the people who “disappeared” simply used something other than a car.
This is how such a thing would be done. Like I said earlier; baby steps. Ripping out all highways at once save 270 would be a disaster, we wouldn’t have had any time to improve our mass transit accordingly.
If people aren’t willing to put up with the traffic, they won’t. That said, being the busiest highway would mean it would be the last to be considered.
I know what you mean, but how could we possibly be even more obscure? Passers-by are doing just that, passing us by. That’s why I said so few would be so inclined to even actually bother getting off the highway and that if they did they’d be disappointed if they just see downtown. I think they’re a non-factor and that looking at our downtown today proves that.
I always find the hair on the back of my neck standing up when people talk about how great things were “back in the day” (particularly when “the day” is before living memory for most of us, and it’s been nearly half a century now since the interstate highway system got going).
shroud is correct. Stopping I-70 and I-71 through Columbus would hurt both Columbus *and* the rest of the country. If there are better transit options out there, then they should be able to come to Columbus and coexist with the existing highway system, and by being better, entice travelers to voluntarily forsake the existing system.
We can do what we can to minimize the aesthetic scars of the highways; I completely support the proposal to add all the new caps to the downtown freeways. However, the solution to the ill effects of highways is not to ban highways any more than the solution to car accidents is to ban cars.
But no one said anything about banning highways.
No, just “tearing them up.” Same thing as far as traffic through downtown is concerned (be it local or thru).
I drive this strip of highway everyday and would like to see something done, both with the highway and the caps. My biggest question is where is the room for widening the highway? Especially the area around the courthouse. You can get a bird’s eye look of this area on Google Earth. I think it would be neat if they made a miniature “big dig” like in Boston. Even though the idea is a pipe drean, we could put the highway underground and make them as wide as we want and reclaim the whole area above ground, not just capping a few streets.
I think the caps thing is a great idea though. I work near the Statehouse and on a nice day I walk to Chipolte’s in the brewery district for lunch and a cap would make the walk more appealing. Walking over that bridge as is, takes you into a different world for the time it takes you to walk over the bridge.
I can think of a thousand different ways that that could go wrong … most of which did in fact go wrong with the said project in Boston.
I have visions of the entire county municipal complex toppling into the I-70 canyon.
they aren’t widening the highways. they’re actually taking all of the sloped walls and making them vertical, thus narrowing the appearance of the highways. They are cutting down on the number of exits and attempting to “untangle” the split. By dumping people off on collector/distributor streets at the fringes of downtown, the merging traffic will be cut down and accidents should be reduced. ODOT’s website for the project is: http://www.7071study.org
Yes, which is one of my favorite parts about the project (after the capping of course). I’m all about greenspace, but those slopes are nothing but unkempt grass and weeds about 2 feet tall and full of trash that no one picks up. A vertical wall (like 670 at the cap) is much more clean to have to look at.
Plus, these caps should act as a noise barrier for those surface streets. Trying to walk on the sidewalk is a huge mess of noise. Anne & I have often wondered aloud how people can live along Livingston or Fulton (Market Mohawk) with all that traffic noise from the split…
This could work both ways for people living along Fulton or Livingston. Those roads will have the potential to carry many more cars under ODOT’s plan. They’ll be widened to 3 lanes (I think) and will probably have timed lights, so cars will be racing through.
I have a feeling it will still be a welcome improvement though! Like you said, those sloped walls full of weeds and the chain link fence overpasses are huge eyesores.
If the city gets thier way with some of the plaza caps, the noise will be way down! I really think that the Front-High-3rd plaza caps should be priority #1. That’s the gateway to the southside “neighborhood”. I keep thinking about how we’re going to get more amenities in downtown proper. The conclusion that I keep coming to, is that the amenities will start in the BD/GV area to the south, and Arena/SN area to the north and start migrating in. It provides the safest business environment for entreprenuers.
The caps will also provide a nice bridge for the streetcars coming over the highway on Front/3rd too! Lots of potential!
I agree with Brewmaster about the priority of the caps, even though I’d probably move back to the Short North or Arena District if I get to come home to Columbus soon. 3rd & 4th on the north side (crossing I-670) are basically un-pedestrianizable (adjective of the day!) at the moment, and I don’t think retail and entertainment above I-71 would have the potential for immediate impact the way it would in those corridors.
That said, Columbus State’s presence near the I-71 crossings of Spring and Long makes a case there, too, especially if more students start living right there near campus as opposed to commuting. That said, I think that’s a longer-term prospect, as is the potential of effectively reconnecting OTE with Downtown.
Make your voices heard, or just go to get educated. The last meeting I attended was very well put together. They had huge diagrams and renderings set up and ODOT reps were available at each station to ask questions to. This was followed by a presentation and Q&A session.
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/7071study/whatsnew.asp
The Ohio Department of Transportation will hold a public meeting to discuss these issues on December 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Columbus Health Department located at 240 Parsons Avenue.
Since June, the department has been working with urban designers and community leaders to identify design enhancements that can be added to the highway project. The group will share designs and drawings with the public that include a vision for improved streetscapes, freeway caps and other features that improve the look of the freeway and create better connections to downtown neighborhoods.
ODOT will also provide cost estimates to build the features.
“I think people will be impressed by the quality of ideas and designs identified by their peers,†said ODOT Deputy Director Jack Marchbanks. “We have an incredible opportunity to improve the visual landscape of downtown Columbus, but we will need continued cooperation from our city and county partners to identify funding sources.â€Â
ODOT is the only public or private entity to commit funding for this project so far. The department has set aside $500 million, including $37 million in funding for downtown streetscape improvements, including freeway caps similar to the cap at High Street and Interstate 670.
I should be able to make it there. Basically, the caps won’t be done until a while later, but they want to make the bridges cap-ready and to have money set aside for that. It’s all up in the air right now.
Where did you get that from on the website? That wasn’t my impression at all.
Someone who works for city council.
So are you talking about the city, or ODOT? The last public meeting I attended with ODOT, they said that they were setting aside $37 million for streetscape improvements. This was enough for 1-2 caps that would be ready for a developer to plop down whatever they want on top. I have a hard time believing that ODOT would want to have two different construction periods on the busiest couple of miles of highway in the region.
My post was a little fuzzy, you’re right on, it was ODOT. The city wants to see as many bridges able to be capped as possible since this is a one time chance. It’s still early to know exactly what’s going to happen for us impatient people.
At least $58 million needed for 12 caps on Downtown split
Monday, January 29, 2007
Tim Doulin
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Many involved with the reconstruction of the I-70/71 split Downtown seem to agree that covering the freeway is a good idea. The caps can bridge the freeway divide between Downtown and nearby neighborhoods.
But coming up with the $80 million to $100 million to pay for up to 12 caps over the 1.5-mile stretch of freeway is another matter.
The Ohio Department of Transportation has committed $10 million. Last week, a Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission committee recommended the agency put up $12 million for them. A huge gap — at least $58 million — re- mains, and there is debate about who should fill it.
“ODOT and MORPC have made a financial commitment for caps,” said Michelle May, ODOT spokeswoman. “I would expect the city and county also would make a financial commitment in the future.”
Reconstruction of the freeway alone will cost about $800 million, which does not include the caps. ODOT has committed about $525 million and can’t afford much more, May said.
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Still, though, it’s not like these have to be done all at once; this is a figure for the whole project, not for each individual cap, and they don’t have to be done all at once even if they’re part of the same overall vision. In particular, it might make sense to start looking at the other northern and eastern caps first, since they’re going to be tearing up the I-70/71 split, so there’s no sense in building on top of that right before they start ripping it out. (Unless of course the split reconstruction happens before these caps get underway at all, in which case the reverse might be true: it might be more practical to integrate cap construction into the split reconstruction project and do it all in one fell swoop, rather than having to disrupt traffic and get out all the equipment twice.)
Yeah, I think it would save a bit of money and a lot of headaches to do them at the same time.
And honestly, if we’re spending $800 million on the split and it’s only going to take another $80-100 million to make caps, what’s the big deal with adding another 10% to the budget for beautification. I’d rather see $900 million spent with a good looking result than $800 million spent on something ugly.
Not that I’m an expert on this, but I don’t think it will be as hard to find the remaining funding dollars as that article makes it out to be. It’s still early and only ODOT and MORPC have thrown money at it. There’s still plenty of time to round up developers and probably more government money for the project.