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New Study to Explore Creating a Cap
Over I-95 in Wilmington
The United States Interstate Highway System was created as part of the Federal Highway Act of 1956, with $25 billion allocated for the construction of 41,000 miles of new highway over a 10-year period. Interstate 95 (I-95) is considered a key spine of the system and runs over 1,900 miles along the East Coast: from Miami, FL to the Canadian border in Houlton, ME.
I-95 is the only primary (two- digit) interstate route that enters Delaware, running 23.43 miles from the Maryland border near Newark, DE to the Pennsylvania border near Claymont, DE. Construction of the Wilmington Expressway began in the early 1960s. The section from Newport to downtown Wilmington was completed in 1966, and the section from there to the Pennsylvania border in 1968. Today, this stretch of I-95 carries 110,000 vehicles every day.
The path of I-95 created massive changes to the landscape. In Wilmington, the project resulted in the purchase and destruction of approximately 370 homes between Adams and Jackson Streets. The ramps to downtown were constructed to bring economic development to the downtown and Riverfront and offset the loss of this neighborhood. With both elevated and below-grade sections, the construction of I-95 effectively created a wall between the West Side neighborhood and the downtown area, resulting in the disconnection of neighborhoods and the isolation of West Center City from green spaces and parks. It also substantially increased traffic on parts of Adams and Jackson Streets, which now serve as busy service
roads for the I-95 ramps instead of quiet neighborhood streets.
Wilmington is now joining an ever-growing number of cities that are exploring ways to reconnect neighborhoods and provide new public spaces by creating caps over urban highways. These new lands are being used to build green spaces, plazas, and cultural amenities that can reconnect neighborhoods and encourage residents to walk and bike more in the adjacent communities.
The I-95 Cap Feasibility Study will explore the creation of a cap over I-95, and will include ideas for potential uses, such as parks,
Example highway “capping” design concept for I-95 and Penn’s Landing. Photo credit: Hargreaves Jones
new public spaces, or transportation facilities. The concepts will be vetted with the community and many stakeholders, with the goal being to improve residents’ quality of life, safety, and multimodal access (bus service, walking, and biking) through an extensive public outreach bicycle, pedestrian, and transit access to the new space from the adjacent neighborhoods, and will enable the State of Delaware to move forward with this historic project.
For more information or to sign up for project email updates, visit www.wilmapco.org/i95cap.
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