Thirteen years ago, the then-mayor of Maceió, Cícero Almeida, inaugurated two major projects in the city: the Washington Luiz and João Lyra overpasses. At the time, they were expected to provide a potential solution to the capital's urban mobility issues by improving traffic flow in the area. Over time, however, the growing vehicle fleet brought back the specter of rush-hour congestion, and the projects that promised to solve mobility in the city were no longer enough.
Decades earlier, urban planning and transportation experts had already realized that not every overpass could solve a region's urban mobility issues, and in some cases, could even worsen them. Consequently, several overpasses were either demolished or decommissioned as early as the last century. For instance, the Harbor Drive overpass in Portland, demolished in the mid-1970s, had its footprint converted into a park. Similarly, the Central Freeway in San Francisco was demolished after an earthquake severely damaged its structure; local authorities decided against rebuilding it, opting instead to design Octavia Boulevard, now a prominent and award-winning avenue in the city.
