Brush Park ends at the north edge of the I-75 trench. Between John R Street and Brush Street, the final I-75 Cap Feasibility Study, dated October 2026, draws a park over that trench. The report calls it the East Cap and describes it as a neighborhood gathering space connecting Brush Park and Brewster Homes residents "through play, fitness, and landscaping."
The study was led by the Downtown Detroit Partnership with the Michigan Department of Transportation and the City of Detroit. On October 21 the partnership announced that all three proposed caps, nine acres in total, are technically feasible, at a preliminary cost of about $300 million. That announcement got the headlines. For people living on the blocks between Mack and the freeway, the report's later chapters matter more. They show that Brush Park's cap is the least expensive of the three, that its construction is still undated, and that the changes most likely to reach John R and Brush first cost less than one percent of the cap.
Three Caps, Three Different Jobs
The report gives each cap its own purpose, and only one of them is aimed at the people who live next to it.
- West Cap, between Third and Second avenues: a "pocket of daily activity" for students, congregants after services, and nearby workers.
- Central Cap, at Woodward Avenue: a hub for the wider city, "fostering celebration and connection within the entertainment district."
- East Cap, between John R and Brush: the neighborhood one. The project's FAQ says it "supports the Brush Street community, with programming and public spaces centered on local residents and everyday neighborhood use."
The East Cap program lists meandering paths, lawns, nature and play areas, sensory and community gardens, dog-friendly areas, fitness space, shaded seating, and public art with interpretive elements about Paradise Valley and the surrounding neighborhoods. Its flexible lawns are planned for everyday use and small neighborhood events, such as fitness classes, gardening activities and community celebrations. The dedicated event lawn and performance terrace are planned for the Central Cap at Woodward, which the FAQ describes as built for large events and for linking the major venues.
Nearly a year of engagement produced more than 2,000 responses, and that input shaped how the three spaces were divided. The quiet, everyday cap went to the residential edge, and the big public stage went to Woodward.
What the East Cap Costs, and Where the Money Goes
The report prices each cap separately, in 2026 dollars and inflated to 2030.
| Cap | Structure | Public space | Total, 2026 value | Total, 2030 value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Cap | $110,114,000 | $9,413,000 | $119,527,000 | $139,830,000 |
| Central Cap | $85,596,000 | $12,634,000 | $98,230,000 | $114,916,000 |
| East Cap | $84,160,000 | $7,776,000 | $91,936,000 | $107,553,000 |
Another $4,739,000 covers rebuilding the service drives between the caps. All of it adds up to $314,432,000 in 2026 dollars and $367,843,000 by 2030.
The East Cap comes in about $27.6 million under the West Cap and about $6.3 million under the Central Cap. Within its own budget, the gardens, paths and play areas account for roughly 8 percent. The rest pays for the structure that holds them up over a working interstate. The report lists the engineering problems that structure has to solve: grade shifts, stormwater management, fire-life safety ventilation, hazardous materials routing, and environmental permitting. Whichever cap gets built, nearly all of the money goes into the lid over the freeway.
Lowest Cost Doesn't Set the Order
The report's phasing section says that while all three caps could be funded at once, "it may also be possible that limited funding resources mean that only one or two could be funded initially." It goes on:
"The implementation order of the caps may also be informed by considerations such as the near-term community benefits and how they align with other upcoming projects and developments in the immediate area."
Under that rule, the order depends on near-term benefit and on how each cap fits with nearby development, so the East Cap's price is one factor among several. The money raised so far is small next to the costs above. The report says about $4.5 million to $6.5 million is committed to future design and engineering, drawn from congressionally directed funds, the rest of the federal Reconnecting Communities grant, and local match. MDOT, the City of Detroit and the partnership will decide how to split it, and it "may be used to advance engineering on one or more of the caps." Funding for construction and ongoing maintenance has not been identified.
The schedule in the report is just as open-ended. Funding and design run from 2026 to 2029, and the construction column reads "To be determined." The next formal step is the National Environmental Policy Act review, which will cover cultural resources, noise, air quality and mobility.
The Changes That Could Reach John R and Brush First
The street chapter is the part of the report most likely to affect Brush Park on a shorter timeline. The study sorts its street proposals into two groups. Cap-dependent work gets built along with each cap. Cap-independent work "could move forward before cap construction, regardless of the I-75 Cap project timeline."
Several of the cap-independent quick-build projects are on Brush Park's own streets:
- A road diet on John R Street.
- Bike lanes and a road diet on Brush Street.
- Road diets on the I-75 service drives.
- Transit-only lanes on Woodward Avenue.
The report describes quick-builds as using "minimal, cost-effective materials to deliver near-term safety benefits." They could serve as pilots and be upgraded to permanent facilities later. It estimates the quick-build tier at $447,000 and the mid-term tier at $410,000, so the two tiers together come to less than $860,000. That is less than one percent of the East Cap's price, for changes on the two streets that would border it.
The service drives are a familiar problem on event nights. According to the project FAQ, the drives have travel lanes but no designated curb space, and their excess capacity has led drivers to use the travel lanes as standing zones. The proposed road diets on both the westbound and eastbound service drives would allow curbside uses to be defined, which the FAQ says could improve circulation and help with parking and pick-up and drop-off. The FAQ also says the caps will have no impact on off-street parking.
What a Cap Would and Wouldn't Fix
Homes along the trench are already exposed to freeway noise, and the FAQ is direct about how much a cap would help. Noise studies on I-75 and on the I-696 caps in Oak Park found quieter conditions on the caps themselves and minimal change for nearby off-cap locations. Early air quality work found the caps are unlikely to change air quality significantly in the region or right around them. The FAQ says plainly that the caps "cannot be expected to resolve the noise and air quality issues that already exist." The team has identified screen walls and landscaping as possible treatments next to and between the caps.
The history piece is further along than the construction. The project team recorded oral histories and personal accounts from people displaced or affected when I-75 was built through neighborhoods including Paradise Valley. Those recordings are being stored permanently in the Black Bottom Archives, and their themes are going into an Arts and Culture Plan for the next phase's designers and artists. Planet Detroit's July coverage described Paradise Valley as a center of Black business and culture that the freeway displaced. It also reported that some residents favor removing downtown I-75 altogether instead of capping it. The East Cap's interpretive art is where that history would appear on the Brush Park side.
Where the Next Decisions Get Made
The report expects more public meetings and surveys during the later design phases and possibly during NEPA review. It points residents to the partnership's I-75 Cap project page and its newsletter, The Road Ahead, for updates. The final feasibility report can be downloaded from that page.
The neighborhood's own next meeting is sooner. The Brush Park CDC has scheduled an in-person community meeting for Tuesday, November 10, at 5:30 p.m. at the MSU Detroit Center, 3408 Woodward Ave., and it welcomes residents and other community members. No date has been set for building the cap. For now, the decisions that will shape John R, Brush and the service drives sit in the engineering money still to be divided and the low-cost street package at the back of the report.
Brush Park's history has always been shaped by what was built around it, from the mansions that gave it the name "Little Paris" to the freeway at its edge. At Christopher Hubel, we follow that history closely, including chapters like this one that are still being planned. If your house sits on one of these blocks and you want its place in that history told well, Let's Tell Your Home's Story.
