Monday, October 2, 2023

N.Y. MUST Build to Facilitate Long Island Evacuation

 

 

Imagine an emergency situation/mass evacuation from Long Island.

 

Imagine the traffic bottlenecks from the Throggs Neck Bridge onward, with traffic from Long Island funneled to the Cross Bronx, the Hutchinson River Parkway (HRP) and I-95.

 

Clearly we must have the I-287 Cross Sound Link connecting L.I. with Westchester County, best as a pair of over-water spans, with the shore approaches enclosed in tunnel, as well as offshore a minimum of 1100 feet.  This avoids the cost of a full miles long tunnel, while providing the mitigation of tunnel enclosure where needed the most.

 

Clearly we must have a southern NYC metro regional tier, of new tunnel expressways, consisting of an augmented Verazanno Narrows link, with new east-west link to the Conduit Avenue/JFK Belt corridor, beneath new linear parkspace, with new cut and cover expressway tunnel east to Sunrise Highway, as well as north to near Belmont Park, to a pair of tunnels along Hempstead Boulevard and 212nd Place as effectively the Clearview Expressway. extension.

 

Certainly we could use additional cross-water capacity, perhaps with a pair of 2 lane tunnels directly from Brooklyn to New Jersey, as well as another such set flanking the VNB.

 

Yet we not only lack the east-west mixed traffic link between New Jersey and southern Long Island, we are hampered by serious deficiencies for distributing vehicular traffic entering the mainland, made worse by I-95's lane drop from 8 to 6 lanes at its interchange with Pelham Parkway, as well as the roadway geometry of southbound I-95 immediately north of the HRP with the reduced line of sight issues caused by the design of the northbound left-hand off-ramp.  

 

We are already long overdue for a project to extend the outermost northbound I-95 lane at least to the  northbound HRP., and for improving the line of sight of southbound I-95 to the north,

 

Future needs call for a more expansive plan.

 

First, reconstruct the existing open trench and surface 8 lane I-95 between the Pelham Parkway and the split to the Throggs Neck Bridge, with a greater capacity cut and cover tunnel with exhaust filtration.trench, building outwards by excavating space under the adjacent parallel roads with added road space re-strip able for adding 2 lanes in each direction & wider shoulders, and with no lane drop before the off ramp to the northbound HRP.

 

Second, establish a new alternate route for traffic from Long Island, to divert traffic from I-95, of a new north-south expressway tunnel, splitting from I-95 at the current northbound lefthand East 222nd Street exit, and following the Dyre Avene IRT/NY, Westchester & "Boston" RR corridor into southern Westchester County, N.Y.  Such had been planned during the 1950s as a Central Corridor Expressway, though as a conventional, non tunneled design. Our 21st century design cut and cover (with brief open trench segments) would run alongside this RR in the Bronx, and into Westchester. 

 

Industrial area segments would include air rights replacement buildings for local businesses.

 

Project would be designed to accommodate a substituent restoration of the NY, Westchester & "Boston" with the elevated segment extending into Westchester restored, and with the expressway tunnel designed to facilitate reconstructing the RR viaduct and accommodating the restored RR trench, with the project including a replication of the demolished in 2016 East 6th Street NY&B, and the below street level station in Wykagyl in the North end of New Rochelle.

 

Further north, this cut and cover tunnel expressway tunnel would devote the surface to a linear park and allowing a subsequent restoration of the former NY, Westchester & Boston RR service with architecturally faithful stations so incorporated.  Have it divert to the west to preserve the architecturally monumental  Stratton Road "Quaker Ridge" station.  Would divert to follow Bryant Avenue within White Plains, NY to a reconstructed interchange with I-684.


And together with it, have a plan for it to include a new link extending westerly in Mt. Vernon, transitioning from cut and cover to moled tbm tunneling to pass into Yonkers beneath the Bronx River, Raceway Park, with connections to and from the north with I-87, and continuing west to emerge along Ludlow Street to a new Hudson River Bridge connecting Yonkers N.Y. and Alpine N.J., ideally with a tunnel link to I-95 just east the interchange with I-80



 


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