Shopping on the Overpass

David Sucher of City Comforts is excited about an idea being executed in Columbus, Ohio:

The project…started out, in the mind of the Ohio Highway Department, as a simple widening of the I-670 as it rolls through Columbus, Ohio. But the adjoining neighborhoods put up a fight….

The compromise proposed by some local genius was to make the new overpass (necessitated by the wider freeway) into a city street by lining it with shops to "link rather than divide." It is under construction now.

There are pre-automotive precedents for the plan, and there are some potential drawbacks as well. But it is, as Sucher says, a very interesting model for "reconnecting the city by discovering spaces." I hope it works out, and I'm curious to see whether it will.