Basically: urban renewal. Every city in the US, being encouraged by detroit companies and the federal government, decided we need highways going directly through the center of any mid size city. The exact path of the highway would usually end up destroying disenfranchised (usually Black) communities. Besides the racism, the highways also made use of like, parks, rail yards, etc.
I-95 follows the rail in parts, city land near other, and destroyed multiple Black neighborhoods and Providence's chinatown. 195 bulldozed a huge chunk of a cape verdean neighborhood. The PDF below talks about the neighborhood demolished to make rt 10