Governor Kathy Hochul announced the proposed $32.8 billion State Capital Plan includes nearly $3 billion for infrastructure projects that promote equity, connectivity and multi-modal transportation opportunities for communities all across New York State.
These unprecedented and targeted investments, highlighted by the Governor in her recent Executive Budget address, represent a generational opportunity to reunite neighborhoods, promote economic growth and revitalize many of New York's most important urban centers.
Governor Hochul also announced that the State Department of Transportation will commence an environmental review to assess alternatives for reconnecting and restoring the east-west neighborhoods in the City of Buffalo that were divided by the construction of the Kensington Expressway more than six decades ago.
The federally required review will examine the environmental, community, economic and other impacts associated with a partial or full cover of the current Expressway, with the goal of achieving a preferred alternative.
The State Department of Transportation will work aggressively with the Federal Highway Administration to streamline the environmental review process.
As part of the state's commitment to transparency and engaging the community, the public scoping process will begin this spring with a preliminary scoping report to be completed later this summer.
Constructed during the 1950s and 1960s, the Kensington Expressway replaced what had been a grand, tree-lined boulevard - the historic Humboldt Parkway designed by Frederick Law Olmsted - with a below-grade highway that severed the connection between the surrounding neighborhoods.
The original boulevard connected Humboldt Park (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Park) with Delaware Park.
The review, being advanced by the Department of Transportation, will assess opportunities to create new open public spaces, enhance bicycle and pedestrian safety, and reduce current adverse impacts of noise and air pollution.
The review will also assess enhancements to the local roadways to facilitate safe vehicle operations within reconnected neighborhoods.
Project boundaries include the eastern limit of East Ferry Street and western limit at Best Street. The expressway carries about 80,000 cars per day. ■