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Seattle area has another, much more similar highway concealment project that's already built - the I90 on the Mercer Island is partially underground, with the "roof" being used for things like parks. Unfortunately, not the whole length of it is buried, so there is still plenty of highway noise throughout the island.

Mercer Island made me think all auto roads should be built like this, and surface should be entirely reserved for pedestrians, bikes and the like.

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I think lids do three things: they cut down on noise, they reclaim some open space, and they piece back together the neighborhoods that get cut in half by big freeway projects. The Mercer Island lids may not do much for noise, but they do the last two of those things nicely. I think that last item, putting broken neighborhoods back together again, is really important and it can be accomplished pretty well even by fragmentary lids.

There are ways to keep from cleaving neighborhoods with freeways or roads. Big cities in Japan have tons of rail lines and expressways winding through downtowns without really disconnecting neighborhoods. They use lots of overhead walkways and tunnels and also buildings stand right next to the expressways they become intricate with the fabric of the cities --not so much an afterthought-like an add on. So it may depend on a few things --for one people being okay with having a freeway outside the window and also being okay with walkways above ground level connecting buildings and destinations. Now usually the railways and roadways are elevated and not at grade

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