Dozens of Bronx residents gathered in West Farms Tuesday night to make their voices heard about the future of the Cross Bronx Expressway.<\/p>\n
The meeting marked the final public information session for the state\u2019s nearly $900 million Five Bridges Project, a plan aimed at repairing and redesigning a 1-mile stretch of the expressway near Boston Road.<\/p>\n
Among those in attendance was Rey Allen, who said concerns about air pollution and quality-of-life are driving him to speak up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been interested in what\u2019s being done in terms of air pollution,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n
State Department of Transportation officials outlined three proposed options for the project. One plan would focus solely on repairing existing bridges and ramps. Another would include those repairs while adding a shared-use path for biking, jogging and walking. The most expansive option would also connect the greenway to nearby Starlight Park.<\/p>\n
DOT spokesperson Rolando Infante said the agency is trying to balance infrastructure needs with community input.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to rebuild our roadways to include the Bronxites that live within the confines of the expressway,\u201d Infante said.<\/p>\n
But advocates with the Bronx River Alliance argue the outreach process hasn\u2019t gone far enough. The group is calling for a 90-day public comment period, saying a project of this size should not be rushed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re talking about a $900 million project, and you\u2019re talking about people who may not have heard about it before,\u201d said Daniel Rannells, deputy director of the Bronx River Alliance.<\/p>\n
The DOT says it has already extended the comment period beyond the standard 30 days in response to community concerns.<\/p>\n
The extended public comment period ends Friday. State officials say they plan to finalize a proposal and present it in the spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of Bronx residents gathered in West Farms Tuesday night to make their voices heard about the future…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,1309,5185,5459,9,24,1310,63,129,131,130,2462],"class_list":["post-91957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-bronx-river","tag-cross-bronx-expressway","tag-department-of-transportation","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-department-of-transportation","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-west-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91957","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=91957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}