The Omaha City Council unanimously approved a $189,500 contribution Tuesday for a pilot program meant to reconnect a community divided by the North Freeway.
Combined with a $1.5 million federal grant, the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Planning Agency (MAPA) and the City of Omaha will partake in a Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program. Project leaders will hear from the community and design improvements to areas near the North Freeway.
The goal is to take ideas and transform them into fully fledged projects, said Mike Helgerson, MAPA executive director. That could include bicycle and pedestrian bridges, new development, or a “stitch” that would free up unusable land trapped within the ramps of U.S. 75, near 30th and Dodge streets.
Councilmember LaVonya Goodwin, whose district includes much of North Omaha, spoke in support of the program. She said she first learned of the Reconnecting Communities Pilot through the most recent federal infrastructure bill.
“One of the initiatives that surfaced was the need to rectify the disruption of urban communities across the country that highway systems had created in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Goodwin said.