Sept. 12, 2024
When the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), was enacted in 2022, it was touted as the largest long-term transportation investment in U.S. history. In addition to preserving existing infrastructure, it created a pilot program both to redress the ways past transportation projects damaged local communities and to spur placemaking by improving the economic vibrancy in those neighborhoods.
The Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) discretionary grant program set aside $1 billion to fund planning and construction activities intentionally designed to address the barriers created by existing roadways or transportation facilities. "This is the first time ever that a program has been created to acknowledge the harm that was done as a result of transportation infrastructure," says Christopher Coes, U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) acting under secretary of transportation for policy.
In RCP's first year, USDOT awarded $185 million in grant funding to 45 projects. In 2023, RCP — coupled with $3.155 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act's Neighborhood Access and Equity Program — awarded an additional $3.3 billion to 131 projects. "There is a huge appetite for this program," Coes says.
What is RCP's impact two years later? According to USDOT, demand outstrips the supply of available money. Only about 16 percent of all applications received over the past two years were funded. But there are success stories across the country, and planners have been at the forefront.
Capitalizing on construction funds in Michigan
Construction has just kicked off in Kalamazoo, Michigan, one of the first recipients of an RCP capital construction grant in 2022. Its RCP grant of about $12.27 million contributed to a nearly $100 million infrastructure project that will reimagine two major east-west thoroughfares, Kalamazoo and Michigan avenues. While originally built as two-way streets in the 1950s, these roadways were converted into one-way corridors in the 1960s, which left residents of the Northside community cut off from downtown due to high speeds, high crash rates, and a lack of safe crossings.
A preliminary street design for Kalamazoo Avenue shows how planners hope to reimagine the road with better lighting, sidewalks, a crosswalk, and greenery. Renderings courtesy of City of Kalamazoo.
Something needed to change. "The city had been talking about these streets for a long time," says Christina Anderson, AICP, a city planner in Kalamazoo. "And a couple of key things happened that really helped move the needle."
First, Kalamazoo officials updated the city's strategic vision and comprehensive plan in 2017, followed by zoning updates "to align with our new Imagine Kalamazoo vision," Anderson says. "We did this along with developing several neighborhood plans to work on eliminating some of the redlining in our community."
Simultaneously, Anderson says staff began discussions with Michigan's Department of Transportation (MDOT) on the future of Kalamazoo and Michigan avenues. Their studies revealed differing views on how to address the roadways, and two years later, MDOT transferred control of Kalamazoo and Michigan avenues (along with several other roadways) to the city.
That meant Kalamazoo was fully able to rethink improvements to these long-standing barrier roads. "If we wanted to truly create a sense of place, we needed to look at both land use and transportation within the city," says Anderson, referring to the city's previous comprehensive plan and zoning update.
Results from two retail market analyses in 2017 and 2022 indicated that one main issue holding back economic vibrancy in the city's downtown was the existing street network. In talking with store owners and patrons, people just didn't feel comfortable walking or even driving downtown, according to Anderson. Kalamazoo and Michigan avenues needed a creative, community-led solution: converting the corridors back to two-way streets.
The existing conditions of Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Photo and rendering courtesy of City of Kalamazoo.
The proposal for the road shows a potential future that includes bike lanes, road calming features, and pedestrian-friendly crossings.
"We had done all kinds of planning on this concept," says Dennis Randolph, a Kalamazoo traffic engineer. "And ideally, when this is completed, it will serve to reconnect the Northside, an [environmental justice] neighborhood, as a result of old redlining practices, to the downtown. By converting these one-way streets to two ways, it will make it a lot more friendly for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers."
Paired with funding from other federal discretionary grants, Kalamazoo was able to start construction in June 2024. Randolph says Kalamazoo and Michigan avenues will need to be completed by fall 2027 for the grand opening of a new $300 million downtown event center that will be home to the Western Michigan University hockey team.
"Receiving the RCP funds is truly a validation that we are doing something right," Randolph says. "I think when people see the final result, it will be something they can really feel good about. Reconfiguring the streets has been something people have wanted for a long time. And we have made [a] significant effort to ensure that this process was responsible and done in a way that benefits all users in our community."
Planning to reconnect Seattle's South Park
While several construction projects across the country have benefited from partial funding through RCP, significantly more communities see RCP funds as an opportunity to start or continue the conversation around the impact transportation infrastructure has had on community placemaking.
A five-minute drive is all that separates vehicle access to two primary north-south corridors — Interstate 5 and State Route 99 — that run through Seattle. However, for residents living in the city's South Park neighborhood, the redundancy provided by SR-99 has proved anything but convenient.
South Park residents have a vision for their community, and SR-99 is not a part of it. "Reconnect South Park is a totally grassroots effort," says Rico Quirindongo, director of the city's Office of Planning and Community Development. "About three years ago, community leadership went to the state and the city to call for us to look at potential futures for SR-99."
A pedestrian bridge, known as "the scary bridge," is used by Seattle elementary school students to cross SR-99. It's a stark reminder of how damaging the construction of the highway was to the South Park community. Photo by Nelson\Nygaard/courtesy of City of Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development.
South Park was redlined in the 1930s and construction of the SR-99 highway in the 1950s compounded the harm done to the neighborhood. With the completion of I-5 in the 1960s, the highway corridor through South Park was no longer the preferred transportation route. Still, its presence has continued to negatively impact residents.
The little-used highway disrupted the local street network, limited opportunities to cross the corridor, and created both air and noise pollution. But Quirindongo says South Park residents have begun exploring options to reclaim their community. "We can't erase or undo the impacts of SR-99," Quirindongo says, "but we can determine what happens next."
To assist in the ongoing planning efforts surrounding the Reconnect South Park initiative, the federal government awarded $1.6 million in RCP funds to Seattle in 2022. Thus far, state funds have been used to explore four possible options to reimagine the SR-99 corridor: mitigation of adverse impacts, building a tunnel over the corridor, converting the corridor to a boulevard, or removing it entirely. Federal dollars will help further refine each possibility, centering the conversation around connectivity, safety, and equity.
"This effort is not just about trying to figure out how to get rid of concrete," Quirindongo says. "It's about fostering the inspiration to imagine a different future than what we have right now."
A starting point
While removing, redesigning, or reimagining a roadway won't be the only solutions to addressing the complex issues that have plagued communities for decades, it's a start.
"We know that [RCP] will not be enough to fix the problem, because we know that this is not just a transportation issue," Coes of USDOT says. "It's a housing issue. A jobs issue. A labor issue." From the beginning of the pilot, he says he knew it was a commitment to unite governmental agencies to work together to create lasting change for neighborhoods across the country.
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