The Promises and Potential Pitfalls of Highway Reclamation for Population Health: A Research Framework
The research discusses highway reclamation, which involves removing or burying highways to enhance urban areas and promote population health, as part of recent U.S. infrastructure initiatives. It highlights the potential for these projects to inadvertently cause gentrification and emphasizes the need for a framework to evaluate their true impacts on neighborhood environments and health outcomes.
College of Health researcher(s)
Abstract
Highway reclamation (i.e., the removal of highways or placing existing highways underground to create mixed-use urban areas) is being implemented around the United States, often touting co-benefits for population health. As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods grant program is a first-of-its-kind investment in launching even more highway reclamation projects. Depending on how the projects are implemented, these projects may create gentrification (i.e., the displacement of poor long-time residents by wealthier new people), thereby displacing the populations these projects are designed to protect. However, little work has systematically examined the extent to which highway reclamation projects provide the promised benefits for neighborhood environments (e.g., reduced air pollution), minimize gentrification, and improve health outcomes. This commentary proposes a framework by which the multidimensional impacts of highway reclamation can be evaluated, unlocking potential new structural pathways toward urban health equity.