PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia residents are asked to weigh in on a plan to put a cap over the Vine Street Expressway (I-676) to reunite Chinatown and Chinatown North. City officials laid out the early stages of the project at a press briefing on Wednesday.
The cap would go somewhere between Broad Street and 8th Street. It might be open space or a platform for development. Should it look modern or traditional? Like a neighborhood or a landmark? These are the kinds of details city leaders hope to work out with the help of a nearly $2 million planning grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities program.
Chris Puchalsky of the city’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability says the goal of the program is to undo some of the harm caused when an interstate highway is built to transect a community such as Chinatown.
“Not only the loss of a lot of structures — housing, businesses, some of the fabric of the community — but there’s the ongoing presence of the expressway today,” he said.
The city is calling the project the Chinatown Stitch.
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Chinatown fought against the Vine Street Expressway from the time it was proposed in the 1960s to the time it was finished in the 1990s, and John Chin of the Chinatown Development Corporation says residents are excited about the cap plan.
“We are really ecstatic that, for decades, we’ve lived with this — but now there’s a glimmer of hope that this concrete highway can be converted to something that can be a great benefit to the residents and workers of Chinatown,” Chin said.
“This is a really hopeful day. Not just for Chinatown but, I think, for the city of Philadelphia.”
CDC helped the city get the $1.8 million planning grant.
Residents can fill out an online survey in English, simplified Chinese or Spanish.
Planners are looking for consensus from residents so they can begin the design phase of the project. The goal is to have a construction contract in place by 2026.