Buffalo Rising Online

I'm 26 and I wonder if this will get done in my lifetime?

I would have to see the specs - but ALT 4 seems like the best plan.

Alternative 5: Bury the road like they did in Boston. Woh, uhhh, sorry I was daydreaming there for a minute---I like alternative 4.

GREAT!! 3B or 4! wow the changes that would bring to the park and the city are fantastic. Bring back the roundabout this with the Richardson project, this area will be quite impressive in 10 years!

2016? what's the rush?....I was expecting at the minimum 2025...now I'm excited.......

Alt 4

2016 really isn't that far away but is it realistic?... I know of course we all want things done now...

How's that bridge coming?

This is just like New York State, always behind. By 2016 we won't need roads, we'll be driving around like the Jetsons by then.

I vote for either 3B or 4.

2016 (target date)=2116 (completion date)

I think there needs to be a conversation about the Kensington and the Scajaquada.

Unfortunately Scajaquada Creek and Hoyt Lake prevent any possibility of a below ground roadway.

However, the intersection with the Niagara Expressway is an abomination that just kills everything between Niagara and Grant......no matter what is done the scajaquada will always divide Forest Lawn and Delaware Park as well as Delaware Park itself.....but we have a real possibility to address Niagara Street, Forest and that while area of Black Rock. Perhaps inviting an expansion by Contract Pharmacueticals at the old Bristol Myers Factory, a redevelopment at the old Atlas Steel site and an expansion by Buffalo State.

There is also the opportunity to integrate Buffalo State across the scajaquada expressway and scajaquada creek to integrate it with the land on the other side....this must be addressed as well. Buffalo State is a major local influence on the local economy and property values so we must encourage their growth and expansion until it reaches its true potential in partnership with UB.

9 year timeline is: Years 1-3 for preliminary study, Years 4-5 for final EIS, Years 6-7 for final design and Years 8-9 for bidding and construction. I think it will take several more years than what is being projected.

As far as funding, because federal funds will be sought and the current federal transportation budget has been allocated, no funding will be sought until the next federal transportation bill (whenever that is).

I went to the meeting and the NYSDOT engineers specifically said that the ramps on the eastern and western edges were outside the scope of the project. The engineer said that the ramps themselves have so many issues that it would easily derail and delay the project. He did say that if there were ideas or plans that developed about those ramps that they would try to account for them in the project. That seemed reasonable to me. Chuck Banas (sp?) of the New Millenium Group asked about decking over "the cut" where Main, Humboldt Pkwy and Scajaquda meet. NYSDOT was open to examining it but obviously pointed out that would raise the cost estimate.

According to the NYSDOT, alternative 4 was only included because the City of Buffalo insisted. Their initial concern about this plan is that it would result in traffic being diverted onto more residential streets (namely, Amherst, Forest, Delavan). With peaks of 80,000 cars/day being reported, I don't think pushing traffic onto those streets would be a good idea.

Overall, I thought the meeting went well (other than being disappointed at how long it was going to take).

Could someone please help me out with the photo. What is the area in the foreground? And I guess I'm looking east?

Jefferson...It looks like 2 images merged together. The "top" of the photo is looking east. If you locate the gallery about 1/3 of the way down the photo there is a line just "below" it that starts the second image which looks like it could be the intersection at Parkside looking North??? That is my best guess...I dunno though...

These are two photos. Top photo is 198 looking east from Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the bottom photo is Agassiz Circle with Medaille at bottom, Parkside Ave at top.

I think it is pretty clear that the 2 lane option is the one that should be built. We must keep in mind that there was no demand for this volume of traffic through this area until a super highway was sliced through this city park. The park was stolen from the people of Buffalo and we should never forget that!

When your car has been stolen you don't negotiate with the thief to get back half of it. We should get back all of Delaware park not just some of it.

I also attended this meeting and their literature that was included showed a history and a future lime line: 1980's The community began discussion about problems on this road 1999 Buffalo with the Olmstead parks began a study 2005 Further Studies and public discussion 2007 NYSDOT begins indepth study 2007-2010 Premininary Studies & designs 2011 Final Environmental Impact Study 2011-2013 Detailed Design 2014-2016 Construction

So if we guess that "1980's" means 1986 AND that the proposed completion date does not slip at all this project will have taken 30 years from first rumblings to completion!!

This meeting left me with two questions: 1. Lots of people in the audience made comments about the community "healing" after the re-construction. how much longer after the re-construction will it take for these places to "heal"? If they haven't healed into new, different neighborhoods in the 60 years since this was built, will they ever be re-healed? Will it take 30 years from the completion data? That would be 100 years from the original construction!

2. What kind of healing do we expect to really see here? I would love to see Lincoln Parkway re-connected, but does it really matter? They also talked about splitting Delaware park from the Art gallery and the Cemetery, but really who goes to all three of these in one day anyway? I'm hoping that I just don't understand, but would someone please give me an example of how this will REALLY impact the area? Not just some fluff saying that the area has been split and SHOULD be back together, or that the neighborhood is torn, but REAL impact. This project is being estimated at $40MM and if it does not have any direct impact other then simply making people feel better, perhaps we should re-direct this (not yet ear marked) money to things that have a more easily seen direct financial impact, like getting rid of the Skyway to make room for a commercial district.

This timeline is unreasonable. Not only could this project be completed much quicker if under the right guidance, but preliminary work has ALREADY BEEN DONE. Its not like this hasn't been looked at before! Right on the city's website is the Scajaquada Corridor Study ( http://city-buffalo.com/Home/NewsCalendar/Scajaquada_Corridor_Study ). This was a huge waste of time and money with nothing getting done, and unfortunately I expect this study to follow suit.

I'm sick of area planners dragging projects out and doing nothing so they can cash in on a lengthy process. This would not be acceptable in the private sector!

In fact, a combination of both:

2 lane road with a median - (minus) that ugly guardrail, eww

I think making a really nicely landscaped parkway to connect Delaware Park, not separate it, would be an added benefit. Can you imagine connecting Lincoln Parkway again???

It should look exactly like Bidwell, etc.

Large tree lined median with path, spearating two streets with a 30-35mph speed limit. Restore the circle at Parkside to slow traffic down before hitting this stretch of reduced speed. Tie it in to look like the existing parkways to at least attempt to fake that it was part of the plan from the start ;)

Joshua,

I agree that it would be nice to have a nice connecting parkway connecting Delaware park and connecting Lincoln parkway again, but I have to ask, what do you think that this would do for Buffalo? Would we see a payback on the $40MM investment that it would take to make this street more pretty? So what would happen if we re-connected Lincoln Parkway? I just don't get why we would want to spend $40MM here when currently, if is somewhat functional, and although it does create a barrier between things, I think that for the most part in the ~60 years since it was built we have found ways around it. I would really rather see this (not yet ear marked) $40MM used in an area that we could see an ROI, like helping with returning card to main street, or tearing down the skyway to make room for the new commercial district, or so many other things that this city needs must worse. Could we at least re-pave Elmwood, or how about Allen street? Drive down Allen and you think that this road has its original pavement for the turn of the century!

Buffalo really needs to pick one plan and work it to its completion. We simply do not have the resources or money to try to fix the whole city at once. I would love to see this project completed, but I'm not sure this is the best place to invest our money.