This week on In Focus, state Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez discusses work zone safety and the impact of distracted driving on highway maintenance workers. She highlights the effectiveness of automated work zone speed enforcement cameras, which reduced speeds by at least a third. Dominguez shared alarming instances of high-speed drivers, such as one going 139 mph on Long Island.
She also highlights the need for legal protections for transportation workers facing harassment and assaults. She talks about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed legislation that aims to extend these protections to highway maintenance workers. Dominguez details the Queen City Forward project in Buffalo, which seeks community input on reimagining the Kensington Expressway, and the I-81 project in Syracuse, which aims to connect communities.
New York State Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes also discusses the $800 million Kensington Expressway project’s goal to reunite split neighborhoods. She explains how the project will tunnel from Best Street to East Utica, restoring community connectivity.
The majority leader explains how courts halted the project, due to the requirement of an environmental impact study. She also shares how some residents oppose traffic changes, fearing increased congestion and costs and others argue the tunnel restores historic design and protects health from decades of pollution. Peoples-Stokes details how community leaders secured federal support, but legal setbacks threaten the project’s timeline and funding.
You can watch the full interviews above. And be sure to tune in for a look inside the biggest issues impacting upstate New York, on In Focus with JoDee Kenney — every Sunday on Spectrum News 1.