A state proposal to close a key I-95 exit is drawing frustration from Co-op City residents who say it would cut off direct access to a large portion of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
The New York State Department of Transportation is considering removing Exit 9 on the southbound Thruway as part of Phase 2 of the Bruckner Expressway Mobility Improvements project.<\/p>\n
The exit provides direct access to Section 5 and the Hutchinson River Parkway and leads into the area where a new Metro-North station is currently under construction.<\/p>\n
Residents say the ramp is a critical route for drivers and MTA buses \u2014 and they worry closing it will make already complicated traffic even worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a big inconvenience,\u201d one driver said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea,\u201d another added. \u201cI\u2019m not too happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DOT says preliminary design work for the project is expected to be completed by mid-2026, with construction beginning as early as 2028.<\/p>\n
But the proposal has already faced pushback from local lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Assemblymember Michael Benedetto, a Democrat who represents the 82nd District, said he understands the agency\u2019s goal of improving traffic flow but fears the impact on residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am sympathetic to the Department of Transportation and their plans on trying to make traffic flow a lot better,\u201d Benedetto said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want the traffic to be flowing a lot better at the expense of injuring the people in the great city of Co-op.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drivers say the closure would force them to travel to the opposite side of Co-op City just to exit the highway, only to loop back to the same area \u2014 costing time and creating additional congestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s going to create more traffic, and people are going to have to go out of their way,\u201d one resident said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the DOT said the project is intended \u201cto enhance safety and reduce the frequency of crashes.\u201d<\/p>\n
But residents argue that eliminating one of the neighborhood\u2019s most-used exits could increase the likelihood of accidents, especially during peak traffic seasons when the nearby mall attracts shoppers from across the Bronx and Westchester.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis section is going to be flooded with drivers coming from hither and yon,\u201d one resident said. \u201cAnd what happens is that there\u2019s the potential for a lot of accidents to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DOT says it plans to continue engaging with the community as the project develops. Still, some residents and lawmakers are urging the agency to reconsider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A state proposal to close a key I-95 exit is drawing frustration from Co-op City residents who say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,35896,26064,1527,5459,15351,35895,8296,9,24,63,129,131,130,29578,1961],"class_list":["post-69335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-bruckner-expressway","tag-co-op-city","tag-construction","tag-department-of-transportation","tag-hutchinson-river-parkway","tag-i-95","tag-metro-north","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-traffic-safety","tag-train-station"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}