Commentary: Study seeks your input on cap over I-95 in Wilmington

Wilmington is joining an ever-growing number of cities that are exploring ways to reconnect neighborhoods and provide new public spaces by creating caps over urban highways. These new lands are being used to build green spaces, plazas and cultural amenities that can reconnect neighborhoods and encourage residents to walk and bike more in the adjacent communities.”

The United States interstate highway system was created as part of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, with $25 billion allocated for the construction of 41,000 miles of new highway over a 10-year period. Interstate 95 (I-95) is considered a key spine of the system and runs over 1,900 miles along the East Coast: from Miami to the Canadian border in Houlton, Maine.

I-95 is the only primary (two-digit) interstate route that enters Delaware, running 23.43 miles from the Maryland border, near Newark, to the Pennsylvania border, near Claymont. Construction of the Wilmington Expressway began in the early 1960s. The section from Newport to downtown Wilmington was completed in 1966, and the section from there to the Pennsylvania border in 1968. Today, this stretch of I-95 carries 110,000 vehicles every day.

The path of I-95 created massive changes to the landscape. In Wilmington, the project resulted in the purchase and destruction of approximately 370 homes between Adams and Jackson streets. The ramps to downtown were constructed to bring economic development to the downtown and riverfront and offset the loss of this neighborhood. With both elevated and below-grade sections, the construction of I-95 effectively created a wall between the West Side neighborhood and the downtown area, resulting in the disconnection of neighborhoods and the isolation of West Center City from green spaces and parks. It also substantially increased traffic on parts of Adams and Jackson streets, which now serve as busy service roads for the I-95 ramps, instead of quiet neighborhood streets.

Wilmington is joining an ever-growing number of cities that are exploring ways to reconnect neighborhoods and provide new public spaces by creating caps over urban highways. These new lands are being used to build green spaces, plazas and cultural amenities that can reconnect neighborhoods and encourage residents to walk and bike more in the adjacent communities.

The I-95 Cap Feasibility Study will explore the creation of a cap over I-95 and will include ideas for potential uses, such as parks, new public spaces or transportation facilities. The concepts will be vetted with the community and many stakeholders, with the goal being to improve residents’ quality of life, safety and multimodal access (bus service, walking and biking) through an extensive public outreach process. The final report will detail bicycle, pedestrian and transit access to the new space from the adjacent neighborhoods and will enable the state of Delaware to move forward with this historic project.

For more information, to sign up for project updates or to share your thoughts via an online survey through Friday, Jan. 28, please visit wilmapco.org/i95cap.

Dave Gula is a project manager for the Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO).

Editor’s note: The deadline for surveys, originally Jan. 21, has been extended to Jan. 28.