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By Hope Yen

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON 鈥� A long-delayed plan to dismantle Interstate 375, a 1-mile depressed Detroit freeway that was built by聽demolishing Black neighborhoods聽60 years ago, was a big winner of federal money on Thursday. The $104.6 million award was the first Biden administration grant given to tear down a racially divisive roadway.

Transportation grants聽totaling $1.5 billion were handed out to 聽thanks to increased funding from the聽2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

The money will allow Michigan to advance its $270 million effort to transform the stretch in Detroit into a street-level boulevard. Connections will be made to surrounding neighborhoods and amenities, such as bike lanes, will be added. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg previously said he would make racial justice a priority in his department’s funding awards. Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, two of the city’s predominantly African American neighborhoods, were razed as part of the 1950s creation of an interstate highway system, displacing 100,000 Black residents and erecting a decades-long barrier between downtown and communities to the east.

Hailed by city and state leaders as help to rectify a past racial wrong, the federal money represents a key first step that advocacy groups say will inspire dozens of citizen-led efforts under way in other cities to dismantle highways.

But advocates cautioned that Michigan’s plan to build a six-lane city boulevard risks simply replacing one busy roadway with another. Some Black residents, meanwhile, worry they could be priced out of the city by new business development and shiny condo buildings that promise direct links to downtown.

With plans dating back to 2013, the highway removal is now estimated to begin as soon as 2025 鈥� two years earlier than expected. Construction could wrap up by 2028.

鈥淭his stretch of I-375 cuts like a gash through the neighborhood 鈥� one of many examples I have seen in communities across the country where a piece of infrastructure has become a barrier,鈥� Buttigieg told The Associated Press. He joined Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and several Black residents in Detroit on Thursday to spotlight the grant.

鈥淲ith these funds, we’re now partnering with the state and the community to transform it into a road that will connect rather than divide,鈥� Buttigieg said.

Other winners Thursday of the聽Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, or INFRA, grants include $32.5 million for Flagstaff, Arizona, to build pedestrian underpasses to reconnect lower-income neighborhoods isolated by a 1-mile segment of railroad to downtown; $100 million for Clear Creek County, Colorado, to upgrade 8 miles of the I-70 Mountain Corridor; $110 million for New York to expand refrigerated warehouse space at its Hunts Point food distribution center; and $70 million for Chicago to improve rail track.

Detroit’s project would create a slower-speed boulevard that aims to improve safety by removing a steep curve and adding LED lighting, while removing 15 old bridges and two stormwater runoff pump stations and building wide sidewalks, protected bike lanes and pedestrian crossings.

Whitmer had originally sought as much as $180 million in federal money for the project. Because that would have been a tall order under the Biden administration’s聽Reconnecting Communities pilot program, which was funded by Congress at just $1 billion over five years, the Transportation Department opted to award Michigan $104.6 million under the federal INFRA discretionary grant program, which has a bigger total pot of $8 billion over five years.

Christopher Coes, assistant secretary for transportation policy, said the Detroit grant reflected聽Buttigieg’s pledge to make Reconnecting Communities聽a broad 鈥減rinciple鈥� of his department 鈥� not just a single program 鈥� with many efforts under way. Money under that specific $1 billion pilot will be awarded late this year or in early 2023.

Ben Crowther, advocacy manager for America Walks and coordinator for the Freeway Fighters Network, praised the new federal grant. While there are over 50 grassroots efforts around the country aiming to remove or repurpose highways, only three cities 鈥� Detroit, Syracuse, New York and Somerville, Massachusetts 鈥� have demolition plans that are shovel-ready, making them prime candidates for federal funding.

鈥淭he fact the Detroit project is now moving forward really speaks to the priorities that U.S. DOT has set for reconnecting communities that are trickling down to the state level,鈥� Crowther said. While community debate will likely continue over the best design and whether a six-lane boulevard is a good approach, he said, the new federal focus on equity is 鈥渁 lot of inspiration for local groups for that reason alone.鈥�

Still, some Black residents worry the new boulevard could only create more problems.

Sam Riddle, political director of the Michigan National Action Network and a longtime resident of the area, says to truly address racial inequity, city officials need to take a more holistic approach to improving Black livelihood, such as construction of affordable housing.

鈥淭hey’re not going to right a historical wrong where Black businesses were wiped out,鈥� Riddle said. 鈥淲hat they’re going to do is repeat the same mistake that prices out majority-Black Detroit.鈥�