440 Enhancements, Holland Tunnel Additional Tubes, West Street/11th & !2th Avenue Boulevard Tunnel

Is not it absurd that Manhattan bound traffic from Staten Island is so pushed upon the Verrazano Narrow Bridge?

 

Why not instead better use Route 440 to and through the Holland Tunnel?

 

Because the Holland Tunnel is irresponsibly deficient in capacity!

 

It was constructed 1924-1927, being opened to traffic the year when Charles Lindbergh flew the Atlantic non stop.

 

And ever since, in the past nearly 100 years, ZERO ADDITIONAL CAPACITY.

 

Not even a simple addition of an extra westbound tube, so the past proposals for a Lower Manhattan Expressway (1929-1969), as well as Westway (1974-1985), were hobbled by what would have been an atrocious westbound traffic jam, especially the LME, being fed from the east by its Brooklyn Queens Expressway  connection to the Long Island Expressway, plus a Bushwick Expressway from the Conduit Avenue/JFK Airport corridor.

And why is it that we have ZERO grade separation on the "West Side Highway" corridor, south of 57th Street?

It is a somewhat positive development that persons involved with Donald Trump's project between 57th and 72nd Street planned a set of 3 lane box tunnels, northbound beneath the Riverside Drive southern extension, at least for smaller vehicles.  I ought to know, as I attended and testified at its sole public hearing way back in 1999.

But it is a sad commentary that so many were bamboozled by the fraudulent "environmentalist" movement against not only the 1974-1985 Westway project as then planned, but taken in by the lie that the United States was somehow too poor to afford a modern, interstate grade (aka full SHOULDERS) highway TUNNEL, for placing the main flow of vehicular traffic underground, freeing up the surface for a more pedestrian any cyclist friendly environment,

The anti Westway movement as we know, sadly failed to address any potential design issues, nor preservationist concerns.  The pier district it would have displaced was largely removed anyway (except in Chelsea).  The development was at least an extension of the existing street grid, rather than an urban enclave as with Battery Park City, or the Mott Haven area of the southwest Bronx, south of Yankee Stadium, where ill placed development has commenced to stymie placing the lower Deegan underground in a pair of rectangular box tunnel with an extra travel lane in each direction along with SHOULDERS.

 

The moronic orchestrated anti Westway movement displayed every indication of the interests of big petroleum and Wall Street high finance- obsessing against the project's TUNNEL segment (but nothing about its elevated segment to the north of 29th Street to 57th Street), and lying through their teeth in insisting that outright cancelling Westway (or ANY modern expressway replacement of the antiquated viaduct constructed at about the time of the Holland Tunnel) was "unaffordable".

Faux environmentalists spouted against the tunnel upon specious "clean air" arguments.  AKA the pollution "hot spots" within 17 feet or so of the portals would have been embarrassing to the petroleum industry.  Better to just adhere to the petro industry maximum that "the solution to pollution is dilution" (just note how these anti highway folks say NOTHING about cleaner fuel standards as greater use of ETHANOL, our cleanest and renewable source of fuel octane for enhanced engine efficiency.  And why cancel a highway tunnel upon an already established desire line corridor for enhanced MTA funding?  Because that serves to deflect from the impending computerization = 1983 - of the NYSE, along with the phase out of the minuscule 0.1% rate NYSE trading/transfer/sales tax, 1978-1981.  Yes, 0.1% considered unacceptable, even though retail taxes are an upwards of 7.75%.  And narly a word from the supposed liberal progressive DNC/RINO tools, with DNC spokespersons continuing to say nothing about this while bashing the Reagan tax cuts, but not the HUGH CAREY tax elimination so here elucidated.


For whatever it was worth, Westway was scuttled by September 11, 1985 with Albany throwing in the towel.

 

Officials would essentially do likewise, offering only a few partial expressway (grader separated) proposals for this 91 corridor, but nothing with full enclosure- to placate the petroleum industry and wall streets faux environmentalist orchestrated organizations.

 

They eventually selected a $360 million "boulevard" plan of a nice new concrete roadbed adorned with a raised landscaped center median, alongside a waterfront pedestrian and cyclist path with a NARROW sliver of park.

Insanely, they failed to design/construct tis upon any sort of fixed structure to preserve this roadscape for subsequently constructing a cut and cover tunnel, within the existing West Side landstrip.

 

So this $360 million must be amortized over the past 3 decades, roughly $10 annually, in order to do the right thing and construct a twin set of cut and cover tunnels, each with 3 travel lanes and SHOULDERS, at least 12 feet for the righthand shoulders, and PLACING THE ACCESS RAMPS WITHIN THE SURFACE MEDIAN.  That's right.  NO shoulders emerging or opening up on the right hand sides of either northbound or southbound West Street/11th Avenue or 12th Avenue.  This therefore places the express traffic AWAY from the est Side Boulevard's outer edges, eliminating traffic conflicts along the waterfront park and the inland side.  Doing this requires either a "braided" arrangement, with the submerged tunnels swapping positions so the access ramps are to the right within the tunnels, t avoid placing the underground ramps to the left.


Construct these braided West Side Highway land tunnels within the existing land corridor, from the new Holland Tunnel tubes, northward to connect with the Trump development tunnels around 58th Street.  Better yet, employ the existing northbound Trump development tunnel as an access ramp into the grid at or somewhere north of 72nd Street, likeliest 79th Street, using its southbound tunnel for northbound traffic and construct a 3rd such box immediately west for southbound traffic.

Long Island Brooklyn Queens Evacuation West- Cross Brooklyn Expressway Tunnel with IRT and enhanced Verazano Narrows Crossing

 

A Cross Brooklyn Expressway is a MUST, together with a MANDATORY addition of capacity to continue west towards New Jersey via Staten Island.

 

The Cross Brooklyn Expressway obviously must be a fully enclosed rectangular tunnel box set, equipped with exhaust filtration and covered with a new linear park. 

It must not be a brutalist design as per the 1967-69 proposed Linear City with its proposed new buildings, and its *semi* enclosed tunnelways.

 

Nor can it be a set of merely 3 through lane roadways stacked atop each other to fit within the mere 80 foot wide right of way of the existing LIRR Bay Ridge RR.  It must of course include the long proposed "Bi Borough" IRT, underground, along with extra heavy railroad tracks. for a minimum of three heavy RR tracks, and 2 IRT tracks.  Sadly the expressway box tunnel requires clearing buildings.  But to minimize the use of residential properties, have it slice through Brooklyn College, fully enclosed, and be sure to give all displaced residences a full 3 1/5 x existing fair market value (at the time of this writing), or 1 1/2 x such, together with replacement housing of equal of greater interior square footage, perhaps within new 4 or 5 or 6 story military academy scaled mansion styled architecture buildings, together with generous off street parking, of a minimum of 5 cars per unit.

 

My previously proposed idea of a direct tunnel to New Jersey is excessively expensive, and has the detriment of requiring an all new parallel link alongside the existing I-78 spur to the Holland Tunnel.

Better is simply expanding and enclosing the existing 6 lane trench to its design width capacity of 12 lanes, and constructing a twin span to the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge.

Widen the Staten Island Expressway, using its existing corridor, together with a tunnel box enclosure upon its more populated area segments, to provide new land space atop for recreation.

 

Construct a new westbound roadway from I-278 in New Jersey extending to the west, so as to provide additional capacity extending inland away from a potential tsunami.  Ideally, construct a 3rd Goethals span, westbound only, with a greater capacity westbound roadway continuing past the New Jersey Turnpike.

 

Construct an all new Outerbridge Crossing, replacing the existing shoulder-less 2 lane in each direction span with a pair of spans each with 5 through lanes and s set of outer shoulders.

 

The additional capacity for the Goethals has the distinct advantage over the Outerbridge for being further inland.  Therefore it is advisable to construct a new westbound roadway extending from I-278 inland.

Long Island Additional Evacuation Capacity/Amtrak Trans Sound Rail/I-180/I-80 Southern Westchester Link

 The northern U.S. region MUST have an additional bypass, from I-80 & the existing northern terminus of the New Jersey Turnpike through southern Westchester County to I-95, together with a bridge-causeway linking New Rochelle to Long Island, together with a new cross sound rail link, as it is impractical to add a raillink to the Throggs Neck.

 

This bypass starts immediately east of the existing eastern terminus of I-80, along the Northern Railroad corridor, briefly elevated to avoid the marshlands potential flooding and to cross over Route 4, before descending into a cut and cover tunnel. 

 

Further north, this cut and cover tunnel veers northeasterly. easterly, towards a golf course, to emerge from its portal at the Palisades Parkway, to transition to a new span across the Hudson River, to Yonkers, landing at the short block or so long "Bridge Street" continuing east along Ludlow Street, heading towards the Saw Mill River valley and Parkway.

Technical advice is here solicited for the best way to cross the high mountain ridge.  As I doubt that anyone wants a Maryland I-68 style deep mountain cut, we need to explore tunneling techniques, likely with a pair of large tunnel bores, sufficiently wide to render at least a full set of right-hand shoulders.

 

Said tunnels would emerge just west of the Saw Mill Parkway, with an artistically styled span crossing over, continuing east into a cut and cover tunnel segment displacing and replacing the Lincoln High School, and so continuing to a second artfully designed viaduct to pass over I-87 and along through the southern parking area of the Casino-Raceway Park, and subsequently over the Bronx River Parkway, to enter a cut and cover tunnel segment in Mt. Vernon along 2nd Street, to a set of connections with the I-684 North Central Road Upstate Gateway Expressway Tunnel system, with I-80 continuing east over the Hurchinson River Parkway upon a new artfully styled arched span, and enter another cut and cover tunnel segment, along the Metro North to New Rochelle (with no access to downtown Pelham).

 

I-80 Tunnel would emerge along the western side of the I-95 corridor, with generous use of tunnel box enclosure for muffling traffic noise and giving back surface space.

 

Immediately north, northeast, the I-180 spur (cut and cover) would veer towards Long Island Sound via a thankfully located bit of industrial waterfront, along with an all new railroad spur.

 

Both the expressway and the railway would here enter into a new box tunnel causeway, with the roadbed just below the waterline, but with the tunnel box standing up as a new pier- shaped land-way, and continuing into the Long Island Sound, with a drawspan, or turn-style span for the railroad, and an overhead span for the expressway.

 

This causeway would land in Long Island at the northeastern corner of the Port Washington peninsula, and continue as enclosed tunnel box, either directly off the existing northeast shoreline, if not a new swath paralleling just inland, so swinging to avoid displacing the dwellings along the coast, before entering a golf course.

This project would continue south to the corridor of the previously planned Roslyn Freeport Expressway which was in-explicitly cancelled in 1953. 

I-180 would employ generous use of tunnel box enclosure and have its interchange with the Long Island Expressway, with a spur continuing south at least to Mineola.

 

The railroad component is particulalry needed as the grade of the Throggs Neck is impractical for a railway, and because this New Rochelle to Port Washington causeway is far more financially and engineering practical that a railroad tunnel crossing under the Sound.

Upstate Access Evacuation Route(s) Clearview Tunnel/I-684/I-687/NYWB & Catskills Express further pondered

 

 

1- the Clearview Expressway extension MUST be a cut and cover tunnel. 

 

But not at the expense of creating a chasm at its northern end, immediately south of the interchange with the Grand Central Parkway (do note the topography, how it drops to the south).

 

To do it right, we MUST re-excavate the southernmost 1/3 of a mile or so of the EXISTING Clearview, and do so with a plan to completely remove and replace the Clearview-Grand Central Parkway interchange, best with a overpass design mimicking the previous multi arched GCP bridge/overpass.

 

And that means shutting down the Cleaview south of Union Pike, with the possible exception of maintaining a eastbound GCP to northbound Clearview through the reconstruction.

 

Clearly this Tunneled reconstruction and extension would continue south before turning to parallel Hempstead Avenue before turning south at Belmont Park to parallel the Cross Island Parkway, flanking each side, until the interchange (retained) with the Southern State Parkway, before its northbound lanes emerge further south with the northbound lanes immediately to the west.  Eminent domain is required, so we have the space later to bury CIP/Belt, with at a minimum 3.5 x fair market value, for a high capacity, cut and cover mixed use interstate expressway.

 

Notably though (and quite sadly), the planning authorities erected a "UBS" Arena, directly in the path, complicating this, and best in need of demolition, as far as I can see.  This UBS Arena was erected only as recently as 2019-2021, and represents the sadly typical contempt of road planning by the authorities & their associated elites.

2- We need a more capacious as well as STURDIER Throggs Neck Bridge crossing.

 

Lets see the development of plans for a pair of 8 lane bridges ideally, with sturdy, stocky legs more able to withstand a tsunami.  Our security demand absolutely nothing less.

 

 3- We must have a separate new crossing to the west.  Namely a pair of new road bridges perhaps mimicking the classic style of the Hells Gate RR Bridge.  Connect this to the south via a new Inter borough Expressway Park Covered Cut and Cover Tunnel.  Do it together with the, not "Bi" Borough, but rather a Borough (or even a Quad Borough with a bridge or tunnel to Staten Island as long anticipated. Reconnect the former NYW&B, removing the apartment/condo buildings foolishly placed upon it right of way to the north of 177th Street) IRT line.  

 

Reconstruct the entire lower Bruckner, (along with the lower Deegan expanded from 6 to 8 through lanes), removing that disgusting elevated monstrosity flanked by new higher capacity cut and cover tunnels.  Restore the NYWB stations, widen and tunnel lid the land segment foolishly converted to a "boulevard", and construct an 8 lane tunnel extending north, northeasterly beneath the Zoo, perhaps with a long bored tunnel paralleling the Bronx River Parkway north to the Sprain and or I-87, and 4 to 6 lanes along Route 1 likewise as tunnel, to join with the new North Central Road Tunnel along the west side of the restored NYWB.  Construct an aerial tunnel with wooden planks atop without heavy soil, and continue it northward to Webster Avenue to enter the Wykagil Bathtub, with a split with the start of a new route I-687 as previously discussed in this blog.  Have it cross over Pine Brook Boulevard in an aerial tunnel with a soil roof for new recreation space, crossing under Weaver Street and arcing northward behind the Quaker Ridge School. continuing north in new linear park tunnel aligned with that existing to the north, displacing and replacing the Heathecote School building and continuing paralleling the Heathecote Bypass before arcing to parallel the 4 lane Mamaroneck Avenue and connect with an all new I-684 interchange.

Additionally, reconstruct the lower Deegan, expanded from 6 to 8 through lanes with full left and right shoulders, removing that ridiculous new building along the waterfront south of Yankee Stadium to construct a pair of cut and cover Deegan expressway tunnels as I posted in this blog back in November 2009.

 

And be sure to prevent any further such development, as I exposed, being pushed by the usual astroturf front organizations pimping for some shadowy network of elites hell bent upon stymieing an improved design road system.