Gov. Whitmer joins MDOT, community partners to celebrate a hurdle cleared for I-375

This week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast puts a spotlight on the project transforming I-375, a stub freeway built six decades ago, piercing the City of Detroit and displacing whole neighborhoods in the era of urban renewal.  

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Director Paul C. Ajegba, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, and interested parties this week at a roundtable discussion after MDOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). This follows thorough documentation and review of public comments, which is the final National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) decision document. The document describes why the I-375 improvement project will not have any significant environmental impacts expected to occur upon implementation of the selected alternative design.  

Tony Migaldi of the infrastructure design firm HNTB is managing the project in consultation with MDOT planners and engineers. He joins the podcast to talk about the significance of this week’s milestone, the work that brought the project to this point, and what lies ahead. 

Migaldi talks about the amount of listening that went into the process and the robust engagement with the owners of businesses along the corridor and the residential neighbors. He also discusses excess property that will be freed up with a conversion of a sunken freeway to an at-grade urban boulevard, which will include options for cyclists and pedestrians and connections that were lost to the freeway.

 This animation offers an idea of what to expect with the finished product. 

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who has some family history in the neighborhoods lost to the freeway, spoke on the podcast previously about what the project could mean to the city and acknowledging mistakes of the past. When work to build I-375 began in 1959, the thriving black neighborhoods of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley were demolished to make way for the freeway. Built through a thriving Hastings Street, the new I-375 opened in 1964 and created a barrier between the central business district in Detroit and the neighborhoods to the east, resulting in decades of underinvestment and a lack of opportunity for the predominantly Black communities on the other side of the freeway.