Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - After focusing on reconnecting communities divided by infrastructure decisions in the past during her recent State of the State Address, New York Governor Kathy Hochul was in Buffalo Saturday announcing the beginning of the process that could lead to the partial or full covering of the Kensington Expressway.
The Kensington, Route 33, carved through the historic Humboldt Parkway, dividing the parkway and placing a barrier between communities in the form of an expressway.
"None of us were here when that beautiful parkway was torn up, destroyed," said NYS Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes as she introduced Hochul Saturday.
Hochul gathered with numerous local political and community leaders Saturday adjacent to the expressway at the Buffalo Museum of Science and announced the environmental review process for the project. Funds for the project are coming from $3 billion being set aside for infrastructure projects aimed at bringing communities together statewide.
"Reconnecting neighborhoods that were severed by asphalt highways is a cornerstone of our bold infrastructure vision for a better New York," Governor Hochul said. "Better infrastructure means better quality of life, and the communities around the Kensington Expressway in Buffalo and across our state deserve nothing less. These projects will help right the wrongs of the past through safer and reliable transit networks, landscapes designed to bring communities together, and routes that are friendlier for pedestrians and bikers."
"Today I'm announcing, we are making good on the promise I've just made to all of you and that is that the environmental impact study will begin immediately," said Hochul. The federally required review will examine the environmental, community, economic and other impacts associated with a partial or full cover of the current expressway.
Constructed during the 1950s and 1960s, the Kensington Expressway replaced what had been a tree-lined 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 NYS 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.
Rep. Brian Higgins was at the Saturday announcement, heralding the project and referencing what the current expressway represents.
"It was about the transfer of wealth from the city to the suburbs," said Higgins. "The community be damned," said Higgins. "You took away 'this' to create 'that'? No more."
