In a New York Times article it is written that Madrid (Spain) has hidden a six mile stretch of freeway and transformed "a formerly neglected area in the middle of Spain’s capital."

countless tons of granite installed to make paths and fountains; some 8,000 pine trees planted. A new, elegantly simple boathouse has been designed, and a 19th-century complex of brick and glass buildings, including a derelict slaughterhouse and greenhouse, are now being renovated to house art studios and a dance theater.

“When the highway was here, I sat on my sofa and watched television all day,” she [73 year old Pilar López] told me. “Now I feel healthy again because I walk with my friends in the park for hours.”

• In San Francisco, the Embarcadero Freeway was taken down, which reconnected the city with its now glorious waterfront.
• In Seoul, the removal of a stretch of highway along the now-revived Gaecheon stream has made room for a five-mile-long recreation area called Cheonggyecheon.
• In Milwaukee, the destruction of the Park East freeway spur has liberated acres of downtown for parks and neighborhood development.
• In Boston, the nearly-30-year, bank-busting Big Dig fiasco made Boston a better place by tunneling a downtown highway
• In New York, city and state officials are inching closer to tearing down the Sheridan Expressway, a mile-and-a-quarter-long gash in the South Bronx connecting the Bruckner and Cross Bronx Expressways, perhaps to replace it with homes, commercial spaces, playgrounds, swimming pools and soccer fields arrayed along the Bronx River.

The City of Alcoa was built with the future in mind. Let's not take a step back by building a five mile gash through the area. Let's continue to progress and look at alternatives, of which there are many.