The above pictures are taken at 5:00 on a Friday on Route 5 in the construction zone along what will eventually again be Fuhrmann Boulevard. What you do not see is a traffic jam. Actually, traffic was completely free flowing during what is generally considered the busiest part of the day, and week, for traffic congestion. Which brings about the question: What are we missing here?
Those who support the current reconstruction of the Route 5 Expressway say that without the short 1.5-mile expressway, that traffic would grind to a halt. But, as you can see here, this is not the case. With that said, navigating through the construction zone has not been without it’s glitches. The first day of the rerouting was a nightmare. Once drivers became accustomed though to the new layout, they adjusted. Some found alternate routes, others changed the times they drove through the construction zone, and some have cut trips due to the high cost of fuel.
The real question is: Do we need an expressway here? The answer is, and always has been, no. Traffic has never justified it. Traffic counts from the Skyway down the stretch of Route 5 Expressway are less than those of Main Street in Williamsville (42,000 vs. 47,000, respectfully). Last I remembered, nobody was suggesting we build an expressway through the Village of Williamsville. The only logical reason that it has been pursued so vehemently is that certain politicians just want to show that they can get projects done before re-election time. It does not matter that it may not be in the best interest of the city to rebuild an expressway on the waterfront.
Now there are those out there that say that the public had plenty of opportunity to express this opinion before. Well the public did. The last Route 5/Southtowns Connector Project meeting I went to last year had everyone walking out with the belief that the DOT was going to build the Boulevard Alternative. Then late last year the DOT put out on their website that they were going to proceed with a “hybrid” alternative. This basically meant that the Expressway would remain to Ohio Street with a boulevard from there south. This plan focused around a major interchange at the NFTA property that when this plan was developed, was to be turned into that “pie in the sky” development plan that we all know went nowhere.
So here we are, in the late Summer of 2008, with construction on what is best described as a “hybrid” of the Hybrid Plan, since we, the public have no real idea what is being built. Throughout the EIS process for this project, the DOT had engineering diagrams posted on their website. Currently though, there are no engineering diagrams of what is being constructed. There are some vague drawings of what the so-called “Olmsted Boulevard” will look like for Fuhrmann Boulevard, but we have no idea what the entire project entails. By law, if the DOT made major changes to the Preferred Alternative, then they needed to have a public hearing before proceeding with construction. They did not, and the public therefore has no idea what is being built.
Where can we go from here? Well, its not too late to stop a mistake that Buffalo will have to live with for at least the next 20 years. Right now traffic is already diverted to Fuhrmann Boulevard. A large section of the Route 5 elevated berm has been dug up. Why stop there. Leave traffic on Fuhrmann Boulevard. Take down the whole of the Route 5 berm. Reconstruct Fuhrmann Boulevard as proposed by the DOT, but do NOT reconstruct the Route 5 Expressway. Instead, grade that land, cleanup any toxic materials that may have been used as fill, layout a street grid, and sell the land to developers to develop. Too much of the Outer Harbor land is currently occupied by road infrastructure that is unnecessary. Do we really need to have a 4 lane Expressway directly next to a 4 lane Boulevard? No. All we need is a 4 lane Boulevard, right along Fuhrmann Boulevard, just as it currently exists.
What I propose would cost the DOT significantly less than what the current project costs, and the City would gain taxable property along the waterfront at the same time. Look, we would not be in this situation if the City of Buffalo had a fully staffed Planning Department that could actually devise precinct plans for all areas of the City. We don’t have that. So we get into these situations where we are always playing catch up. How hard is it to consider, based on the fact that the world did not end when the Expressway was closed, just not rebuilding it. Maybe what I suggest is too simple. But it is worth consideration, right now, before construction on permanent sections of the Expressway begins. This is the last chance, because like any major construction project, we’ll be stuck with this for the next quarter century.
Traffic count data from GBNRTC, update 1/15/08.
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