Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Local and state leaders announced Friday that they will be allocating $1 billion dollars to cover and redesign a portion of the Kensington Expressway from approximately East Ferry to Best.
The project is extensive, will take coordination and comes with a vison community leaders have only advanced in recent years but discussed for decades.
There will be a meeting with a breakdown of the specifics of the project in June, "There is a meeting coming up in June, where the Department of Transportation will come and talk to the community about this project. I would also submit to you that the plans of how it will look and its possibilities are further along than you think," said New York State Assembly Majority Leader, Crystal-Peoples Stokes. "We're supporting a Phase One project that was designed and put forward by a plan that ROCC (Restoring Our Community Coalition) did in conjunction with the University of Buffalo. It's a simple covering up. There will still be traffic that will flow under the bottom, but there will be another tree-lined street, much like Olmstead designed years ago that will be above ground."
President of Buffalo's Restoring Our Community Coalition (ROCC), Stephanie Jeter said that this project has been a result of years of work, "A lot of people worked a long time to make this happen. You don't do anything alone. It's a whole host of people from this community and around Western New York who have helped us advance this agenda."
Stephanie Jeter believes that most of this work done to the 33 could be done in three years, "We'll be mostly through it by then, three years. They're doing a study. We want it covered. Our point is do not cut off traffic to downtown. We didn't think that makes any sense, when we have an alternative, which is allow traffic to go under."
"This is going to look like a real parkway, connected to two real major parks where you're going to be able to walk, ride your bike and drive your car straight through each park" says Jeter. "It's going to be a place where you see people on the greenway, enjoying their families as you do at any Buffalo park. You will see the restoration of Mr. Olmstead's dream for a park system in which the city is built around."
Jeter explains that more people have died or have had serious health issues as a result of the fumes emitted by this road compared to other streets in Buffalo, "Asthma rates along the expressway of children is huge, big, percentage wise compared to any other neighborhood streets in Buffalo."
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Jeter also emphasizes the business strips that will be reconnected as a result of unifying the street divided by the Kensington, Its impact is that it has cut off traffic to our main business strips like Fillmore Avenue and Jefferson. Just like Hertel Avenue and Elmwood Avenue, you need most of the community surrounding it to support it. When you cut off traffic to those two major streets, those business strips all but die. This will open it up and put traffic back on those streets. Because every community should have a business strip right? If you live in this neighborhood, you have to travel to another neighborhood just to get the basics. It shouldn't be that way."
"The next year is the first billion dollars to reconnect and reclaim this community that's been devastated by a below grade expressway that has ripped through the community and divided it like a scar for the last 60 plus years. The community is now getting a victory that they've been clamoring for and fighting for for decades. It is a major, major victory for Buffalo in Western New York. It's part of the transformation of our entire community. The expectation that we see in the very near future, in the next five years is to see a Buffalo in Western New York that has only been a dream, now becoming a reality. Investment in infrastructure, investments in streetscapes, investments in design and investment in human capital, all throughout our community and all throughout the state, is in large part due to the people that are standing before you today and our partners in government at every level. So we're very excited about what the future holds," said New York State Senator Tim Kennedy.