In recent decades there has been an active effort
worldwide to remove elevated highways. Many such highways, constructed in the middle of the
20th century to speed traffic, are now seen as obstacles to vibrant
urban development.
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| Tom McCall Park in Portland, Oregon |
From Korea to the United Statesa,
there has been a new awareness of unintended consequences related to
these expensive and massive highway structures designed to overcome traffic congestion. They were found to be a medicine
more devastating than the congestion disease. Progress in correcting
this mistake has been slow but steady since Portland, Oregon removed its riverside freeway and replaced it with a park in 1972.
Korea
In Seoul, Korea, a former river was placed underground when an elevated highway was completed in 1976. Restoration starting in 1973 returned the river to a more natural
state and removed most of the highway lanes. Mayor Lee of Seoul who was responsible for the elevated highway
removal and the creation of a riverside park upon the former highway
site, was elected Korea's president in December 2007.
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Cheonggyecheon River restoration project
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Seattle
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| Future Seattle waterfront envisioned by 2023 |
Progress on the most recent elevated highway removal is occurring in Seattle, WA with the replacement of the Alaska Way Viaduct.
In the Fall of 2011, Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct began to crumble. City planners and downtown
businesses hoped the removal of the elevated structure would be the catalyst for a whole new waterfront with a broad pedestrian way and a seaside promenade. In November 2012 voters approved
by 77 percent a $290 million bond measure to pay for replacement of the
most eroded and threatened section of the sea wall — a linchpin of the
waterfront renewal package.
After numerous interruptions, a Viaduct replacement tunnel constructed using the Big Bertha tunneling machine was completed. Traffic is now rolling through the new underground way.
Final demolition of the former Alaska Viaduct is now underway. Progress on one segment can be viewed on this video of demolition in May 2019.
The two images envision scenes on the future waterfront after implementation of the plan. Waterfront construction is anticipated to be completed in summer 2023. Seattle Magazine provided an overview early in 2019 of the future expected Bold New Waterfront experience.
San Francisco
The San Francisco waterfront was blocked off after the Embarcadero Freeway
was constructed in the late 1950s. There was a dreary darkness
associated with the spaces beneath and the buildings under the shadow of
this massive structure. If it wasn't for the San Francisco
citizen revolt that followed its construction, the freeway would have
eventually walled off the waterfront as far as the Golden Gate. As it
was, it extended more than half a kilometer north of the Ferry Building
before it turned inland upon its final off ramps.
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| Art Agnos, Former San Francisco Mayor |
Opposition to demolishing the freeway came from Chinatown and the
city's downtown businesses. Agnos continued to negotiate with federal
and state officials to win enough funding to make the demolition
practical. The opposition quieted. Demolition began in 1991.
The city and its downtown and Chinatown businesses survived quite nicely with the renovated Embarcadero. In the image below we see the Embarcadero no longer shadowed by the elevated
behemoth. The Ferry Building insert shows how it was previously walled off by the elevated, double-deck highway.
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| The view looks north along the Embarcadero toward the Ferry Building. The inset is an aerial view of the Ferry Building when the Embarcadero Freeway still existed. H Graem © 2007 |
June 16, 2006, the Port of San Francisco unveiled a monument to Mayor Agnos honoring his vision and courage, noting "This pedestrian pier commemorates the achievement of Mayor Agnos in leaving our city better and stronger than he found it."
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