New dedicated bus lanes and both pedestrian and cyclist pathways are on the horizon for the Cross Bronx Expressway thanks to a $150 million allocation from the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) — the latest step in the reimagining of the freeway to improve both transportation and health outcomes in the borough.
Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, announced a community connector roadway project for the Cross Bronx project on Dec. 18 which includes the new bus lanes and pathways. It’s also a “critical component” of the state DOT’s project to rehabilitate and replace five Cross Bronx bridges, according to Schumer’s office. The project is estimated to cost a total of $258 million.
“When you look at the Cross Bronx Expressway, you see the massive lanes, the cars, the pollution and the disconnect,” Schumer said. “That’s why, under the Biden Administration, we finally had the chance to right some of the infrastructure wrongs of the past, both in terms of pollution and traffic flow in the Bronx.”
As far as infrastructure in the borough goes, the Cross Bronx has been toward the top of the docket for many local politicians.
The Cross Bronx Expressway was started by the famed urban planner Robert Moses in 1948, and has long been criticized as a project rooted in environmental racism. The highway divides the borough in half and originally displaced entire neighborhoods — many of which were predominantly Black, brown, Jewish and immigrant communities — in the process.
Its impact is seen in the daily lives of residents to this day. The Cross Bronx has left communities of color in the South Bronx especially with disproportionately high asthma rates.
A year ago this week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a $2 million grant his administration would use to reassess the negative impacts of the expressway. And a few months later, the city said it would begin community engagement to guide the grant’s research.
One way officials have proposed reimagining the expressway is by capping it — a concept that consists of building parks and other structures on top of highways to virtually push these roads underground, reduce noise and reconnect communities.
City completes ‘first of many steps’ in Cross Bronx reimagining
“The Cross-Bronx Expressway has cut through working-class neighborhoods, isolated communities, closed local businesses, and increased traffic levels in marginalized and low socioeconomic communities. As a result, Bronx residents have been exposed to noise, pollution, and poor health outcomes,” Gillibrand said. “This incredible $150 million investment will help transform and connect the Bronx to the rest of New York, bring economic prosperity to the borough, and undo injustices caused by decades of disinvestment.”
Torres also touted the federal dollars, stating his intent to combat “both catastrophic climate change and air pollution,” which he said is central to the asthma “epidemic” in the Bronx. He represents the South Bronx in New York’s 15th Congressional District.
“We have secured a $150 million grant that represents a down payment toward the transformation of the Cross Bronx Expressway,” he said. “The infrastructure of the Bronx needs and deserves nothing less than its fair share of federal funding.”
His office told the Bronx Times the Cross Bronx is its No. 1 infrastructure priority.
The community connector roadway project aims to improve connections between neighborhoods on both sides of the Bronx River, according to Schumer’s office. Another project component will be providing a direct connection to both Starlight Park and the Bronx River Greenway.
The announcement from Schumer’s office states that the project is now in the preliminary engineering phase and that DOT officials plan to meet with environmental leaders, Bronx community boards and the public in the 2024 spring and summer.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
