Covering your highway: Here’s a how-to guide to reconnect your communities
June 04, 2025
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By David Dixon
Renowned planner and urban designer David Dixon explains how to deck a highway and transform your public realm and economic landscape
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The Interstate Highway System changed America. It connected 42 state capital cities and 90 percent of all American cities with populations over 50,000. But it also displaced more than 475,000 households and over a million people. This costly trade-off led to the loss of small businesses, community institutions, and green spaces. It is especially true in lower-income and minority neighborhoods.
Today, many communities are working to address the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the highway system. At the same time, they also want to reclaim land for housing, mixed-use developments, open spaces, and expanded mobility. To heal the divisions created by highways, urban planners and community leaders are exploring three primary approaches: removing, burying, or decking over highways.
Diving deep into decking, planning and urban design leader David Dixon gives a play-by-play in his latest Planetizen course on how to reconnect communities. Learn what works, who needs to be involved, and how to create a highway deck that’s transformative.
This course is approved for AICP CM credits.
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Residential Architecture Magazine named David to their Hall of Fame as “the person we call to ask about cities"
Contact David
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