Bill seeks to reconnect highway divided communities

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A group of lawmakers maintains the recently introduced Reconnecting Communities Act would reconnect and revitalize areas harmed by Interstate Highway System construction.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), joined Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Chris Coons (D-DE) in presenting the legislation.

The bill would establish a Department of Transportation (DOT) grant program as a means of aiding communities in identifying and removing or retrofitting highway infrastructure, creating mobility and opportunity obstacles.

“The development of the Interstate Highway System connected our country in ways it hadn’t been previously, but it also upended neighborhoods and left communities divided, many times over economic and racial lines,” Carper said. “In many communities of color, nearby highways continue to represent real barriers for getting around and getting ahead. The Reconnecting Communities Act would empower communities to reverse this unfortunate legacy by building spaces over and around our highways, revitalizing nearby areas as a result.”

Caper said the bill would help fund projects like a highway cap on I-95 in Wilmington to reconnect cities and open the door to a more equitable and sustainable future.

“For years, Baltimore’s Highway to Nowhere has scarred the city, dividing communities and serving as a stark example of the long history of inequity in infrastructure,” Van Hollen, member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, said. “Reversing this history by creating infrastructure that brings people together instead of holding communities back is vital to our success as a nation. From Baltimore to cities across America, this is a key infrastructure priority, and we’ll be working to get it done.”