The much-debated New York State Department of Transportation’s plan to cap a section of the Kensington Expressway at Humboldt Parkway has been approved by the Federal Highway Administration.
The roughly $1 billion project creates a six-lane tunnel under a three-quarter mile, tree-lined parkway from Dodge Street to Sidney Street on Buffalo’s East Side.
Speaking at the Edward Saunders Community Center Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul said the Kensington Expressway, which began construction in the 1950’s, has long been considered a symbol of racism and disinvestment towards Buffalo’s Black community.
“It was all about moving people out of our urban core,” she said about the Kensington Expressway. “It was about white flight. And it transformed communities like Amherst and Clarence, God bless them, but a lot of that transformation should have happened right here. It's right here. Hundreds and hundreds of lives were uprooted and businesses destroyed all in the name of this quicker route to the suburbs.”
Hochul said the tree-lined tunnel will help connect those neighborhoods once separated by the expressway.
But even with Federal Government approval, opposition to the project remains.
In a statement released Friday the East Side Parkways Coalition says they stand with East Side and Humboldt residents who oppose the D.O.T.’s plan.
The coalition remains adamant there needs to be an Environmental Impact Study done with their contention being a new tunnel will continue to have an adverse effect on the health of residents in the area.
Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos brushed those concerns aside.
“D.O.T. did a very rigorous study here,” he said. “Both D.E.C. and E.P.A. reviewed the methodology, the analysis, the findings. We concur in fact that this is a net benefit for the area and the governor mentioned, you’re talking about adding environmental amenities that don't exist currently. That's what this project does. From an air emissions perspective. It will be within the states and the federal government's regulations.
Restoring Our Community Coalition Chairwoman Sydney Brown said her organization has spent years putting into place a plan to reconnect the community in this way.
“This has been more than 30 years of people sitting around a table and dialoguing about the different options of what's viable, what's possible and what's best for our city,” she said. “Green space is what's best for our city. And to have the volume where you don't have pedestrians kind of mixing with traffic on such a large capacity is what's beneficial for our community.”
But Brown says the D.O.T.’s approval is just a first step to effectively reconnect the community, with an end goal of reconnecting Martin Luther King Junior Park with Delaware Park.
Project construction is expected to start by the end of this year.
