Past, Present, and Future of Reconnecting Communities

The  Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)  established the first-ever federal program dedicated to reconnecting communities that were cut off from opportunity and burdened by past transportation infrastructure decisions--a new Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) grant program, funded with $1 billion over the next 5 years.

The program funds removing, retrofitting, or mitigating transportation facilities like highways or rail lines that create barriers to mobility, access, or economic development through technical assistance and grant funding for planning and capital construction projects that reconnect communities and improve people's’ lives.

Federal highway policy of the mid-20th century allowed for, and often promoted, the construction of highways through cities and towns across the nation. According to the  Department's Beyond Traffic 2045 Report , routes were chosen where land costs were the lowest or where political resistance was weakest, cutting through low-income and minority communities more often than not.

As detailed in the report, DOT estimates that at least 1 million people and businesses—including mom-and-pop shops, farms, and non-profits providing services—were displaced in the buildout of the highway system. In many instances entire neighborhoods were razed. Many of the communities destroyed by urban renewal and the construction of urban highways were once densely populated, vibrant, affordable, and accessible neighborhoods. Those who remained were left in neighborhoods devoid of their former character, now isolated physically, socially and economically by lasting physical barriers and cut off from opportunities.

In response to these projects, a wave of activism helped lead to the passage of legislation such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Uniform Relocation Act to prevent or mitigate these impacts going forward:

The environmental movement that coalesced during the 1960’s raised new doubts about the impacts of the [highway] program on cities and our natural, historic, and other resources... The Civil Rights Movement empowered African-Americans to question the routing of the new highways through their neighborhoods (sometimes stated in protests as 'white men’s roads through black men’s homes').

Activism also brought about efforts to redress the harms done unto communities by removing or capping transportation barriers in partnership with local and state governments, helping to pave the way with  successful case studies  in removing, capping, or bridging across transportation barriers in communities like Rochester (New York), Marysville (Ohio), and Dallas (Texas). Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration recognized that these community-led efforts should be supported with a historic, first-ever national program.

Thus, the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program was born.

This history and potential future is best understood at the community level. Let's look at the past, present, and future of three of the communities DOT selected to receive Reconnecting Communities grants in the program's first round:

• Buffalo's East Side - New York
• Boston's Chinatown - Massachusetts
• Bluefield's East End - West Virginia

This project will cap approximately 4,100 feet of the Kensington Expressway to provide continuous greenspace and reestablish community character and cohesiveness.

The project will assess the feasibility of reconnecting the Chinatown neighborhood bisected by the construction of the Interstate 90 in the mid-1900s with a highway cap.

Bluefield community will receive a planning grant to enhance access and transit across a rail yard that segregates the predominantly Black East End from downtown Bluefield.

RCP Funded Project Types

The department intends to fund a variety of solutions to reconnecting communities, as long as they are rooted in communities' vision. For the program's inaugural year, the program is awarding projects that address transportation barriers that come in the form of highways, auto-centric boulevards, and railroad lines with the following solutions:

• 12 grants to cap, lid, or bridge over barriers, possibly mitigating pollution and often providing new acreage for parks, housing, and crossings by foot or bike.

• 11 grants to remove transportation infrastructure, such as through infill of sunken highways, taking down elevated highways, repurposing railroad tracks, and reconfiguring highway ramps, that physically remove barriers and often create the opportunity to repurpose land for other uses.

• 9 grants for early planning projects that will identify barrier-creating transportation facilities and study a range of solutions.

• 5 grants to convert transportation barriers into Complete Streets, with tree-lined medians, bike lanes, and sidewalks.

• 2 grants for transit-focused projects, such as new transit lines across barriers or enhancing transit stations for better crossings.

• 6 grants for new dedicated bicycle and pedestrian trails, underpasses, and bridges across barriers.

Note: These categories represent projects' primary solution, categorized for simplicity. Many projects included Complete Streets, public transportation, or bike and pedestrian components in addition to their primary solution category. For example, a study to fill in a sunken highway coupled with new Complete Streets, trails, and additional transit stops is categorized as "Infrastructure Removal". ​

These stories and grants represent only the first year of the Reconnecting Communities Pilot program, with four more years to go.

Go to  www.transportation.gov/reconnecting  and sign up for email updates to get information when the application opens up in 2023 for the next round of funding:

Furthermore, Reconnecting Communities is not just a program, but a principle. The Department of Transportation will and has funded projects to reconnect communities using other programs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, such as our BUILD and INFRA Grants programs. The Department will also work with States and regions who wish to use their formula funding, or funds distributed to them through formulas established by Congress, to reconnect communities.

The Department is standing up the Reconnecting Communities Institute to provide technical assistance to build organizational and community capacity available to grant recipients and other eligible entities interested in reconnecting communities. More information on the Reconnecting Communities Institute is available  here .

We are so looking forward to what the future holds, as we know there are many more stories like the ones above that are out there across the nation. The map of the National Highway System and rail-lines below can be used to explore transportation barriers in your community, and what other stories may be out there: