Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Residents and activists in Buffalo shared many concerns and thoughts with the New York State Department of Transportation at the Buffalo Museum of Science via public hearing on Wednesday in regards to the NYSDOT's proposed draft plans and environmental assessment for the $1 billion Kensington Expressway project.
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Many groups of residents and activists believe that the goal of the project is not going to live up to the full potential $1 billion could buy for the residents. The goal of the project was touted as reconnecting the East Buffalo community, that has been divided by the highway for decades, and restore the city with green space, on top of a partial .8 mile Kensington covering.
"It's 2023, and we're talking about reconnecting communities as if reconnecting communities just means like, putting up bridges and creating green space, when that really isn't a good way to reconnect the community with a billion dollars," notes Taniqua Simmons, a Buffalo resident who resides near Humboldt Parkway. "We could improve the community and reconnect the community in a more cohesive way,"
Simmons, like others in the community, have concerns with the construction period of the project, which is projected to take about four years.
"It is very scary to think that they're going to be using explosives. Our homes are over 100-years-old. There are sinkholes in the neighborhood. And they really cannot tell us, how that's going to impact our home. They haven't been able to tell us the timeframe for the blasting. I am very concerned at the lack of information that's available in this project is supposed to start next year."
Many are in support of the vision, but it needs to be done right, if you ask members of the Citizens For Regional Transit group.
"We strongly support the project's goal of restoring Humboldt Parkway as part of Olmsted's original vision. We agree that the plan's achievement of this goal is very partial at best," said Doug Funke, President of Citizens For Regional Transit.
"The tunnel only extends between Sidney and Dodge Street and offers no relief outside these limits. By rebuilding the expressway in the tunnel section ensures there will be continue to be 75,000 cars each day, polluting the whole area for decades to come. The project's build alternative does nothing to reduce highway pollution, thus ignores the core injustice that was done on Buffalo's east side. Toxic pollution that has been poisoning Buffalo's East side residents for decades and will continue along with the high levels of noise."
Members of the Buffalo community fail to see how this expressway covering will help surrounding business districts that were once prosperous prior to the installation of the Kensington.
"How can this state spend $1.1 billion or more on three quarters mile of roadway and continue to bypass the Jefferson Fillmore business districts and not rebuild the one lost in Genesee Street?" asks Carl Skompinski, another member of Citizens For Regional Transit. "This is a multi-generational mistake that needs to be properly evaluated. This project will not restore the community, it leaves the Fruit Belt behind, a community that lost housing and connectivity to the Genesee business district. How does this project heal what they lost and make that make them hope? It doesn't."
While there are still a good number of people who support this project and admire the intended outcomes, a good amount of people would rather just see the expressway ripped out.
"I'm concerned the plan is certainly trying to restore something, but it's not enough. I'd like to see the entire thing roll back down the parkway as I remember it. That way, you're not going to have a $5 million cost every year to maintain this, you won't have a huge cost in putting it in and the disruption that it causes," said Janet Redmond, who live on Humboldt Parkway for 25 years.
The project timeline now includes an environmental determination in early 2024, a construction contract by the end of 2024 with hopes to break ground before 2025.