The Michigan Department of Transportation has paused a project that would replace I-375 in Detroit with a street-level boulevard, saying the project was heading over budget and getting public pushback.
The department said it's working toward reconfiguring the plan and has received federal approval to do so.
The $500 million project in the heart of Detroit is about “rebuilding connections and creating new opportunities for Detroit’s residents and businesses,” MDOT said. The removal of the outdated freeway and the construction of a modern boulevard will create safer streets and revitalize the city, including Detroit's Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods, the department said in a statement.
Goals of the changes toinclude improved connectivity by increasing the number of street crossings as well as new bicycle routes. MDOT said the plan will provide contract and workforce development opportunities for small and local businesses. The planned boulevard would connect the riverfront to other important city streets like Gratiot Avenue and Montcalm Street.
But the proposed plan garnered opposition that has resulted in MDOT pausing to rethink design elements.
Carl Bentley is one of the leaders of the ReThink I-375 Community Coalition, an organization of Detroit residents who say parts of the project were not being discussed with local community members.
Bentley said MDOT’s project was originally designed as a 10 lane, street-level boulevard. Residents met with MDOT and other officials and got it reduced to six lanes, but Bentley said there was never any real discussion of how to involve the community the street would run through. Dust and other particles from the five to seven years of construction could affect the health of residents, he said, and ripping up roads could have a huge impact on small businesses in the area, particularly the East Market and Greektown areas. Trouble navigating to important buildings such as hospitals in the area was another point of concern.
Bentley said the project was meant to be a restoration project to give justice to the many historically Black neighborhoods that were disrupted by the freeway's original construction in the 1960s.
“When you start a project saying there’s going to be restorative justice, that should be part of the plan,” Bentley continued. “And in no plan did it ever talk about that. We’re hopeful that by having this new view of it that it will be part of it.”
The coalition emphasized the complexity of the project in a statement provided by a spokesperson. “This project pause is a healthy acknowledgement by MDOT of what the Rethink I-375 Community Coalition has said since it was formed: that the I-375 Reconnecting Communities project is more than a boulevard project,” it read.
“While roads are part of the puzzle, this project needs to follow from a vision that respects the complexity of the land use, transportation, urban design, local business, and restorative justice issues at play in the I-375 corridor,” the statement continued.
Bentley said the local community might have different priorities than the state. “Cost wasn’t as much of a concern as the impact of what they were doing was,” he said. “We understand the safety need to fix the roads, but there needs to be an understanding of the impacts of these changes on the communities, both from a health and an economic perspective.”
MDOT started seriously considering the future of the I-375 corridor in 2014, according to a department spokesperson. “I-375 is the perfect mix of business and residential, with needs for both vehicle and pedestrian traffic. A location with all these considerations requires an in-depth review, and based on the feedback we’ve received most recently, we’re not confident we’ve landed on the most ideal design,” the statement read.
In 2024, hundreds of residents, owners and community organizations voiced their concerns and called for changes to the project in an open letter to Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
Whitmer said the project is still in progress. “There are a lot of things that go into projects like that. There is a lot of community feedback that is important, and I think with a change in the White House there are some policies that are different as well,” she said.
Another possibility that advocates want the state to consider is Detroit's Streets for People Plan. It outlines a commitment to having access to multiple safe, affordable, and high-quality transportation choices to get around the city, even without owning a car.
MDOT said it won't lose the progress it's made on the redesign. “We don’t know what this pause means for the timeline of the project, but the $37 million investment to date has yielded valuable information we’ll continue to use as we work toward a final design. We do know we have poor pavement and bridge conditions, with at least four bridge locations that require an action plan sooner rather than later. Next steps and continued opportunities for public engagement will be announced in advance of their start.”
