Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Not everyone in Buffalo is giving up on the idea of tunneling a portion of the Kensington Expressway after the State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) announced a complete reset of the project on Wednesday.
Construction was supposed to start late last year on the more than $1 billion project to tunnel just under a mile of the expressway between Dodge and Sidney Streets on Buffalo's East Side. However, a judge blocked it because a proper Environmental Impact Statement had not been completed.
Now, the State agency is vowing to take in public input from across Western New York to choose a project before beginning an Environmental Impact Study process that could take two to three years.
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Still, some believe the tunnel will become a reality.
"I do believe they're going to come to the same resolution, that it needs to be covered," Rev. Mark Blue told WBEN on Thursday.
Blue has worked with the Restore Our Community Coalition and other community groups in support of the tunnel project.
"When I look at all of what's been going on in the city, we have bike lanes now and the build out... is going to force more traffic to the 33," Blue said. "I think it's the correct way to go."
Blue admitted there is now a big question mark that looms over the project, however it moves forward. Will the money be there?
"We need to do something relatively quickly before everything dries up," he said.
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