By Ben Donsky, principal at Agora Partners
Urban areas across the United States are increasingly facing the legacy of the physical and social divides created by existing highway infrastructure.
For decades, elevated interstates have carved neighborhoods in half, often cleaving downtowns from their surrounding communities and draining the activity of urban cores. As cities experiment with ways to repair these divides and invite pedestrians back into the heart of civic centers, a new frontier in urban development is gaining momentum: the activation of under-highway spaces.
We’ve seen how high-profile deck parks like Klyde Warren Park in Dallas, which this writer helped bring to life through thoughtful programming and activation, have captured the public imagination and inspired proposals like Atlanta’s HUB 404. But these initiatives can be ambitious undertakings that can require significant investment from both the public and private sectors, as well as long-term planning, to come to fruition.
That can be especially challenging in today’s funding-constrained times. Confronting this reality, municipal leaders and city planners have started to recognize that the spaces beneath highways — formerly dismissed as trash-strewn, uninhabitable voids within cities — hold immense potential for fostering connectivity, establishing equity and increasing economic prosperity. At Agora Partners, our team has seen firsthand how creative, entrepreneurial-minded approaches to these overlooked spaces can offer meaningful benefits to underserved neighborhoods while remaining financially and operationally viable.
Unlocking Value in the Shadows of Infrastructure
Unlike large-scale infrastructure projects that might need significant investment or complex construction and engineering efforts, activating under-highway spaces can be accomplished through strategic partnerships and agency coordination.
These efforts typically involve multiple organizations at the city and state level (including departments of transportation), as well as thoughtful design intervention and phased implementation. These spaces already exist within the urban fabric itself and don’t necessitate land acquisition or major structural change. With a properly measured approach, cities can transform underutilized corridors into dynamic areas for recreation, community engagement and local enterprise.
These projects also provide cities with opportunities to incorporate goals surrounding walkability, economic development and even public health. By turning spaces that once acted as barriers into opportunities, cities can create connectivity between neighborhoods, encourage pedestrian activity and create new platforms for community-led programming. Today, when urban equity and individual access are top of mind for officials and residents alike, under-highway projects have the potential to deliver tangible benefits for a host of diverse communities.
CityWalkBHAM: A Model for Urban Highway Reclamation
One standout example of this in practice is CityWalkBHAM, located in Birmingham, Alabama. CityWalkBHAM demonstrates what’s possible when creative planning efforts and stakeholder engagement converge.
Comprising 31 acres beneath an elevated, one-mile stretch of I-20, the initiative reimagines what was once a physical and psychological barrier into a vibrant public destination. Among the development’s many features are a mix of outdoor event venues, a skateboard park, roller skating rink, art installations, food-and-beverage establishments and a destination dog park. These elements are carefully programmed to serve a broad swathe of Birmingham’s residents as well as visitors.
Our team at Agora Partners was engaged to help structure the partnership between the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) and the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC), resulting in a model for governance that supports both the public good and the operational sustainability of the project in the long term.
Prior to development, our team worked closely with ALDOT to develop a programming plan for the site, which included a citywide public engagement process that informed both the design and intended use of the space. After first outlining the different agencies’ constraints and objectives, we were able to coalesce around a shared vision that respected operational requirements alongside community desires.
CityWalkBHAM provides a helpful case study that underscores several key lessons about how these projects can succeed in practice. First, agency collaboration is essential to any initiative at this scale. A wide range of parties, from government agencies and private partners to community organizations, are required to coordinate and activate the space as outlined during the planning process. Fostering collaboration among these groups works best when relationships are structured with clear roles, shared objectives and models that promote transparency and accountability wherever possible.
Community input is also essential in shaping authentic outcomes for the populations they serve. Engaging residents early in the process helps ensure that any programing efforts tie back to actual local needs and aspirations as opposed to perceived assumptions. These ongoing conversations can also identify local programming partners, further cementing community participation. In Birmingham, dialogue helped to shape everything from recreational amenities to cultural programming, serving to anchor the project in a genuine sense of place.
Finally, operational strategy has to be built into any initiative from the outset. Activation efforts can only succeed when long-term plans to sustain them are in place: financially, programmatically and operationally. By bringing in experienced operators, in this case the BJCC, and defining their role in improving and maintaining operations early on, CityWalkBHAM created the foundation for lasting success.
A National Moment for Urban Reclamation
CityWalkBHAM reflects a growing national interest in reclaiming underutilized spaces for community use. Across the country, cities are reimagining spaces beneath highways as opportunities to prioritize and jump-start local economic growth, breathing new life into downtown areas.
Most recently, the Agora team has begun work on Trails Crossing Park in St. Petersburg, Florida, a planned public space beneath I-275 just a few blocks from Tropicana Field. The project’s first phase will introduce a diverse mix of amenities across 10 acres, aimed at supporting day-to-day activation with new gathering spaces for neighborhood events and festivals. This underscores the growing importance of these efforts across the country, acting as crucial avenues for turning overlooked space into pragmatic community assets.
While many of these initiatives were once backed by federal initiatives like the Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) Grant Program, now significantly reduced or eliminated under recent administrations, the momentum hasn’t slowed. In fact, lack of federal funding underscores the importance of local initiative; cities are leading the charge and pursuing creative solutions that turn often ignored spaces into community-driven solutions.
Under-highway activations fit seamlessly into movements like this. They present accessible, scalable opportunities for cities to advance equity without waiting for federal investments. The story behind each transformation is one of turning obstacles that hinder into opportunities that uplift.
As more cities look to revitalize their urban fabrics, the spaces beneath highways remain ripe for reimagination. It’s time to stop writing off these areas as lost causes and start viewing them as platforms to turn dormant areas into vibrant bastions of community.