700k Savannah purchase to help reconnect old West Broad Street

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Savannah City Council purchased a lot on Montgomery Street that will allow the city to reconnect Berrien Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard once the I-16 flyover is removed.

The purchase gives the city a piece of land that allows them to clear a path to reconnect streets once the flyover comes down.

Before the I-16 flyover on MLK Blvd, West Broad Street was packed with businesses, people and culture.

“That was really decimated when I-16 was built,” said Denise Grabowski, co-chair of the I-16 Flyover Coalition.

Interstate construction and urban renewal disconnected the streets. The city’s purchase will reconnect Berrien Street to MLK once the flyover is removed.

“The city of Savannah functions beautifully because we have such a tight grid and a lot of interconnected blocks,” Grabowski said.

Grabowski is an urban planner in Savannah and co-chair of the I-16 Flyover Coalition, a group that has advocated for the removal for years.

“And so what we’re really looking forward to is the removal of the flyover so that we can return these beautiful neighborhoods and these streets back to people,” Grabowski said.

The purchase is one of many steps in the project. The idea to remove the flyover was first mentioned in 1995. Federal funding and aid from Georgia’s Department of Transportation are allowing the plan to come to fruition.

“And it really allows for a more appropriate gateway to Savannah, but more importantly it recognizes something that shouldn’t have been built because when it was, it destroyed so many neighborhood and businesses, so we’re looking forward to right a wrong to the extent we can,” Grabowski said.

“It will never be fully righted because the damage has been done,” Grabowski said. “But this is a step we can take in a positive direction.”