Highways are unwelcome, noisy, polluting neighbors to people who live near them. They’re so imposing that it’s hard to imagine making one disappear. But that’s exactly what Oak Park, IL, might do.  A group is proposing to turn 1 1/2 miles of an expressway into a tunnel, with a 60 acre park on top.

“Atlanta’s newest park is planted in quite a place: 17 feet above Downtown Connector motorists.

There is nothing else like it in the state, say Georgia Department of Transportation officials. The Fifth Street Bridge, officially finished today, has more than tripled in size as it spans I-75/I-85 downtown, giving the feel of a garden rather than a bridge, and adding no additional car lanes.

Instead, a department that has often been accused of favoring road capacity over all other projects spent $10.3 million building the foundation for a sort of mini campus quad, connecting Georgia Tech’s main campus to its new buildings at Technology Square, providing a new main entrance to the university, and serving the mixed-use revival that has exploded on the east side.”

This image (c) Joey Ivansco/Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff