@Admiral Beez posted an article from today's New York Times suggesting the phenomenon is much larger than you seem to think.
Highways radically reshaped cities, destroying dense downtown neighborhoods. Now, some cities are starting to take them down.
www.nytimes.com
From said article:
View attachment 323032
The list is actually 14 that are officially under study, with the remaining 19 being only "proposed" by various lobbying groups.
The list is as follows:
"Committed"
Detroit I375 - stub highway already discussed
New Haven Oak St Connector - stub highway with no real utility
Somerville, MA McGrath Highway - really an arterial road overpass, similarly stub like and little real utility
Syracuse NY, I81 - previously discussed, this is a more significant demolition but there is an alternate route a few km to the east.
"Under Study"
Arlington VA, Route 1 - stub highway running through an office district, an obvious removal. It's really only 1 interchange and an overpass, very small.
Austin TX, I-35 - This is being studied by TXDOT as a part of a widening study for I35. It is but one option of many, including widening the highway, the far more likely choice to be chosen. I would consider this extremely unlikely to actually be demolished.
Boston MA, Allston viaduct - this is an oversized off ramp that is overly complicated as it used to house toll booths before tolls were digitized. Not even a freeway, and makes complete sense to rebuild to a more rational size now that toll booths aren't needed.
Buffalo NY, Kensington Expressway - My understanding is that this isn't a super serious discussion yet, but the highway is a "stub" freeway into the downtown and doesn't have a huge amount of utility.
Buffalo NY, Scajaquada Expressway - This has already had several downgrades and features several at grade intersections and a whopping 30mph speed limit. It's really more of a large arterial road than a freeway. Similarly no serious discussions of actual demolition as far as I know.
Buffalo NY, Skyway - This is a stub expressway that runs to the south end of Buffalo and is severely overbuilt for the local traffic it serves. Happy to see it go.
Dallas TX, I375 - this is not a serious proposal supported by the government at all and as far as I can tell is simply a report prepared by lobbyists.
Kansas City MO - North Loop - Not sure why this is listed as planned at all. I see no official discussion on this one, only lobbying efforts.
Rochester NY - North Loop - stub highway with no purpose. Makes a lot of sense to remove.
Seattle WA, I-5 - Lol this is not a serious proposal and would never actually be demolished. Period.
So of those 14 I see 6 that are actual freeway demolitions that are actually serious and will actually happen. And of those, 1 is actually a substantial demolition.
Most of these so called "planned removals" are just local lobbying groups pushing to demolish key freeways in cities that would paralyze their economies and will never actually get off the ground (Demolish I-5 in Seattle? I-75 in Atlanta? LOL!). A good chunk of them aren't even actual freeway demolitions but are more so just interchange reconstructions or modifications to large arterial roads.