The New York State Department of Transportation is set to hold the first of three public hearings on Wednesday Dec. 3 to discuss a controversial proposal to repair five bridges along a one mile corridor of the Cross Bronx Expressway.
But opponents of the plan say the state hasn’t allowed enough time to properly review the plan and its potential impacts, which NYSDOT released on Nov. 18 in a close to 6,000 page environmental assessment report they argue was ill-timed given the busy holiday season.
Environmental advocates say many Bronxites are preoccupied with holiday plans and caring for young people who are on winter break from school. They’ve called on the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) to extend the public comment period for the nearly $1 billion infrastructure plan to 90 days to allow for more comprehensive and informed public feedback.
Siddartha Sánchez, executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, the leading organization in a coalition called “Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition,” sat in front of the printed report at a press conference just ahead of Thanksgiving.
Stacks of paper covered an entire table as Sánchez and other members of the coalition strongly urged the state to account for the length and technical density of the of the document, as well as Bronx resident’s limited availability during the Holiday months.
“ This review timeline simply doesn’t allow enough time for residents to help shape this once in a generation project,” Sánchez said. “In particular working families, the backbone of our South Bronx communities, deserve a real opportunity to weigh in on the future of the Cross Bronx after enduring nearly 70 years of sickness and toxic emissions because of the expressway.”
The group, a collection of environmental and transit advocates, see the project as an expansion of the long despised, notoriously polluted highway, which tore apart communities and wreaked havoc on public health when urban planner, Robert Moses built the expressway decades ago.
Without intervention, the public comment period for the Cross Bronx “Five Bridges Project” will end on January 9. The public hearings are scheduled for Dec. 3, 6 and 10, in the midst of the holiday season, when community organizers say Bronx residents are short on free time, attention and resources.
Karen Argenti, who represents the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, shamed NYSDOT for the timing of the release, saying that the report and the public comment period were more likely to go unnoticed and unscrutinized.
“ It’s really unfortunate that you [NYSDOT] decided to publish this document during the largest holiday season of the year,” Argenti said. “We don’t think people are really gonna pay much attention to this project during this important family time.”
It’s not just the review period that’s been under debate; the coalition has opposed for years the state’s plans to rehab the five bridges along the Cross Bronx Expressway. Following a prolonged pressure campaign, NYSDOT nixed plans to repair the bridges that would have built an additional ‘traffic diversion structure’ along the expressway, adding more concrete and cars —at least temporarily— to an area with historically poor air quality and the highest rates of asthma in the state, according to the NY Department of Health.
Now, advocates say that they feel the state is finally listening, but they want more thoughtfulness and collaboration on the project, including expanding the public comment period to 90 days. State Senator Gustavo Rivera pointed out that 90 days is a small number in comparison to the decades of disconnection and pollution attributed to the infamous highway.
“ Let’s make sure we get it right,” Rivera said. “We’re just asking for more time; we’re asking for 90 days to make sure that all the input that’s necessary can go into the process so we can make sure that we get it right. If we’ve had seven decades of harm done to these communities, we can wait for a few months to start the process so then we can get all the input necessary to get the best output necessary.”
Dariella Rodriguez from The Point CDC in Hunts Point said that she hoped extra time will give the coalition an opportunity to decode the lengthy, technical document for stakeholders in hopes of engaging effective and informed public comments
“ We have this incredibly long document that we must, as a team be able to digest, share with community, be able to almost translate into language that our community can actually understand and respond to,” Rodriguez said. “We are in a moment of wanting to assume the best intentions, we are celebrating being able to move forward in a good direction.”
Ahead of the first hearing, NYSDOT has not yet said if it will consider extending the public comment period.
Speakers praised Governor Hochul and NYSDOT for pivoting away from other plans that would have built an additional “traffic diversion structure” along the highway, but stressed that they opposed any widening of the Cross Bronx Expressway’s footprint at all.
While the state’s version of the “five bridges project” would technically require a widening of the roadway to include a larger shoulder to bring the highway up to code with the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) standards, Bronx environmental advocates urged state officials to seek an exemption, citing concerns that a widened expressway, even without the addition of new traffic lanes could potentially pave the way for adding more lanes in the future.
“ We have a genuine concern with anything that expands the footprint of the Cross Bronx,” Sánchez said. “That includes expansion for shoulders, expansion for a shared use path, particularly because they have an impact underneath the expressway. But also because we understand that it’s future capacity that could be permitted down the road to increase the volume of vehicles on the expressways, and by extension, the volume of air pollution in the community.”
Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director for the transit advocacy organization, Riders Alliance, said that the state should be analyzing all possible alternatives like appealing for a waiver to FHWA shoulder standards and looking at ways to reduce traffic congestion along the corridor.
“There are always ways around making a problem worse, which is what widening the Cross Bronx so clearly represents,” Pearlstein said.
The first hearing is Wednesday, Dec. 3 at the Mott Hall V. school at 1551 East 172nd St. from 5 to 8 p.m.
Reach Sadie Brown at sbrown@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
