DAYTON — Dayton is taking a fresh look at one of the highways that cuts through the heart of the city. City staff have unveiled Revive 35, a planning effort for the U.S. 35 corridor backed by a $2 million federal grant, with the stated goal of reconnecting neighborhoods on either side of the roadway.
Staff briefed the Dayton City Commission on the project on Oct. 7, outlining a process that will run through 2027. The corridor under study stretches across the city, from Gettysburg Avenue on the West End to Steve Whalen Boulevard on the East End, covering the segment of U.S. 35 that many Dayton drivers use every day and many nearby residents have to cross or live beside.
The money comes from the Federal Highway Administration’s Reconnecting Communities planning program, which was created to help cities rethink highways built in earlier eras. Chief Engineer David Escobar told commissioners the $2 million grant will pay for analysis and public engagement — studying how the corridor works today, where it creates barriers, and what could realistically change.
No construction is being promised at this stage. Revive 35 is a planning project, and its products will be design alternatives: different ways the corridor could be reshaped, compared side by side so residents and officials can weigh trade-offs in cost, traffic flow, safety and neighborhood access before anyone commits to building anything.
Public workshops will be a central part of that work. City staff said residents will be asked to help shape the alternatives, rather than simply react to a finished plan, and the engagement period is expected to run alongside the technical analysis through 2027. For people who live along the corridor, the workshops are the point where concerns about crossings, noise, access and safety can get into the record.
The effort also looks beyond the planning grant itself. By completing the analysis and producing credible design options, Dayton aims to position specific pieces of a future rebuild to compete for phased federal and state construction funding, instead of trying to finance one enormous project all at once.
Highways like U.S. 35 remain essential routes for commuters, freight and emergency vehicles across the Dayton region, so any changes will have to keep traffic moving. At the same time, city leaders say a corridor planned decades ago does not have to stay frozen in its original form, particularly where it separates neighborhoods from jobs, schools and services on the other side.
What happens next is the slow, public part: studies, workshops and draft alternatives over the coming months, with a clearer picture of the options expected as the work moves through 2027. Residents along the Gettysburg Avenue-to-Steve Whalen Boulevard stretch will get their chances to weigh in long before any design is final.
