I-375 project update leaves residents still skeptical

Skepticism.

That’s the word that came to mind repeatedly recently as residents weighed in on the latest update for the Interstate 375 project that aims to turn the below-grade interstate segment in Detroit into a surface-level boulevard.

The Michigan Department of Transportation has come under increasing pressure in recent months to deliver a truly transformative project, but residents from the city’s east side and beyond don’t appear to be sold on what the state has presented so far, at least those who are speaking most loudly.

When one man implored, “Please do not do this,” he was answered by loud clapping during a recent evening meeting in Eastern Market.

MDOT did get some acknowledgment for changes it made that are expected to improve safety and boost walkability that have begun to percolate through the design updates, even beyond the reduction of traffic lanes already previewed from nine to six in sections. Seeking to answer concerns that the project would limit access to hospitals, MDOT’s latest conceptual slides promised more connections to Mack Avenue and Brush Park. They also showed the addition of bump-outs — spots with widened sidewalks — to improve crossing safety for pedestrians at Gratiot, for instance.

The team on hand to discuss the project insisted that they are listening to residents. The MDOT project team’s Leslie Love highlighted more than 70 stakeholder engagements in recent years and insisted that the state doesn’t take the history of the area that once contained Black Bottom lightly. Love also noted that the highway opened to traffic 60 years ago, a reminder that one of the reasons cited for the project is the age of the infrastructure.

Residents worry about access to Eastern Market, Greektown, hospitals

Adding a two-way bicycle track to run parallel to the boulevard, connecting the road more directly with the riverfront and removing the curve that dumps interstate traffic onto Jefferson are some of the other features that the design team has touted.

But the group of residents that make up the ReThink I-375 Coalition want a major shift in the process. Signs outside that Tuesday meeting with messages like “Vision First, Road Second,” “Don’t Cut off My Access to Greektown and Eastern Market” and “Minutes Matter. Don’t Add to my Hospital Commute” highlight some of the worries.

The group has also released a list of 11 demands that they’ve delivered to Project Manager Jon Loree.At the top of the list is a heading summing up a key demand to “stop designing the road until the Framework Plan is complete.”

That’s the process of engagement being led by the city that would help determine priorities and what will happen with the 30-plus acres of land that MDOT says would be freed up by the project.

The project timeline that MDOT provided recently showed completion of the draft framework in the second quarter of next year and completion of the final framework in the third quarter, with “early works” construction slated for the fourth quarter of 2025. Major construction would begin in the third quarter of 2026 with completion in the fourth quarter of 2028. Road design, already underway, would continue until the end of 2026.

Concerns about business loss during construction

Skeptical residents aren’t clear how a fairly tight window between the completion of the framework plan and the start of construction can allow for real input in the process.

Pandu Wahyono, who lives in the Park East community, criticized what he called a “lack of discussion with the community” about what the plan is going to be. It “seems like they already have the end goal,” he told the Free Press.

The coalition requested a “detailed and comprehensible timeline for all design and urban planning work” and asked the state to stop “box checking” community engagement. MDOT has defended its community engagement process, saying it’s working and the project is still early in the design process.

One of the major concerns that has been raised involves construction mitigation, with particular worries that some local businesses in Eastern Market and Greektown won’t survive the disruptions and would be replaced eventually by big box stores. MDOT said it is working with the Downtown Detroit Partnership to develop potential construction mitigation strategies for the project. The coalition, in its list, asked that the state commit to strategies that offset business losses and address concerns about transit access and emergency vehicle routes.

The group noted that it submitted nearly 500 signatures on a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Mayor Mike Duggan raising concerns about the project and seeking to halt the current MDOT process, with more than 100 additional signatures being added since.

A letter in response from Whitmer dated June 13 thanked the group for sharing its concerns and noted that “this project presents us a unique opportunity to reconnect two prominent neighborhoods in Detroit and work towards righting a past injustice. I understand the challenges a project like this faces, as it is woven into the larger transformative vision of Detroit and the community at large. Public engagement and collaboration with local project partners are vital to its success.”

The cost of the project, which is slated to include the reconfiguration of the Interstate 75 interchange, has been pegged at $425 million. It has been framed as not just a solution to an aging highway but also as a way to reconnect downtown and east-side neighborhoods and address the impact of the losses of formerly vibrant neighborhoods like Black Bottom and Paradise Valley to urban renewal projects and highway building decades ago. Detroit’s experience is specific to Detroit, but the loss of predominantly minority and immigrant neighborhoods in this fashion happened across the country.

Despite the fraught history, Lafayette Park, notably, has been described as one of the most successful housing experiments in the country. Many residents worry that the I-375 project, if it isn’t handled properly, could mean upheaval for a well-loved part of the city.

And although many residents say they want to see a process that meaningfully addresses the losses, including of Black businesses, decades ago, skepticism for the stated goals and proposed solutions applies here, too.

“You can never restore that,” said one woman, recounting her family’s lost connections to the area when they were “scattered to the wind.”

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: I-375 project update doesn't quiet critics