N.Y. REQUIRES Constructing Revived Westchester Central Corridor Expressway, as multi model tunnel highway with restored NYWB RR

WESTCHESTER/UPSTATE CENTRAL ARTERY PROJECT

 

(appended January 20, 2024- since changed, eliminating the California Road and South White Plains "Ridgeway" alignments, and replacing the west of the land-marked station at 556 Stratton Road, with a Hilary Circle routing to allow restoration of the demolished in 2012 Marks Estate Mansion with appropriate complimentary Military School Scale residences with *minimum* 3750 foot square footage, prioritized for existing communities.)

Just consider the ramifications of some emergency requiring evacuating Long Island.

 

Consider the traffic via the Throggs Neck Bridge.  Yes, long term, twin it & reconstruct and widen the Clearview Expressway primarily as cut and cover tunnel, that extends south/southeasterly (212St/Pl, & Hempstead Avenue), fully encased with exhaust filtration to the vicinity of Belmont Park, and continuing south along the Belt as park covered tunnel.  Ask the locals in the Hempstead Avenue area their assistance in  setting the exact alignment for a pair of 4 lane with full outer shoulder cut and cover tunnels.  Seek their assistance in what to do atop.  Full restoration of existing neighborhood configuration (with the older more architecturally important houses moved/shored up), with or without a new linear park to connect the Belt Park to the Clearview, and with or without some new higher rise residential apartments/condos that would establish a precedent pf providing more generous livable square footage.  Of course we could also include new tunnel caps atop portions of the Belt Parkway, establishing a more capacious park corridor atop that and our new mixed use expressway tunnels southward to the Sunrise Highway (which must get a series of new cut and cover tunnels along the RR corridor to make a full continuous expressway corridor to Amityville (I-78).  And do likewise with the Belt's northern extension, the Cross Island Parkway along the shore to restore local waterfront access.

 

We all know that the northbound Throggs Neck link would be massively jammed - particularly along the I-95 Cross Bronx Expressway/George Washington Bridge to I-80.  And, in the case of a tsumani, or radiation incident, it does not help that the I-95 New England Thruway runs closely along the Long Island Sound's mainland shore.

 

So, let's consider an all new link, extending northerly from I-95/Throggs Neck Expressway, past Co Op City and into Westchester County, to carry traffic to and from Long Island to both I-684 AND a new Hastings on the Hudson Bridge to New Jersey's Palisades Parkway.

From the north, this I-684 TUNNEL would extend from a completely reconstructed I-287/I-684 interchange, enter a tunnel alongside Bryant Avenue, before turning south into the NY, Westchester & 'Boston RR corridor - its Westchester County portion dismantled early 1940s  - but still in use in the Bronx as the Dyre Avenue IRT, and connect with I-95 from the south.

This I-684 TUNNEL PROJECT would be designed to include full eventual restoration of the 1912-1937 N.Y., Westchester & Boston RR.

 

It would start with the initial, southernmost portion, from the IRT Dyre Avenue line, to a connection with the Metro North New Haven line, with expressway completely submerged/enclosed for effective sound containment and exhaust filtration, and with RR initially as a high viaduct (bridge), before descending into a trench/tunnel.

 

Design would include a new set of reconstructed architecturally faithful mixed use "stations' at Sanford Street, and East 3rd Street, to a connection with the Metro North, with the initial stub of the northern continuation into the North End of New Rochelle.  Have that established as an IRT link (requiring legislation extending that authority) from the Bronx Dyre Avenue line, to MetroNorth New Haven line/AMTRAK.  The continuation north would go to a faithful replication of the Wykagil Station. This RR would enter into a tunnel with the expressway through the northern edge of Ward Acres, and continuing past the historic "Quaker Ridge" Station, continuing to a new station, accessible from the shopping center to the west, behind the historic station building at the Scarsdale 5 Corners Heathecote Junction.  Would continue as tunnel along and past the Heathecote Bypass (which would become a part of this tunnel).  Whereas the I-684 Tunnel would veer from this corridor through the lightly developed area behind Archbishop Stephinac HS & Our Lady of Sorrows Church, this RR would continue north into a new station within the enormous Westchester Mall.  It would then continue north to Westchester County Airport, giving that a DIRECT passenger rail link into downtown White Plains, to Heathecote Junction, Wykagil, and Mt. Vernon.  And we have the option of restoring 4 track service within the Bronx Dyre Avenue line.

 

This new expressway link starts at the 233rd street northbound lefthand exit.

 

This project MUST include a suitable reconstruction of I-95 from the I-95/Throggs Neck conjunction.

 

Ideally it should include reconstructing the 8 lane trench as a 14 lane cut and cover tunnel (so the Throggs Neck link gets a full 8 lane northern continuation).   Yet that could be arguably deferred.  But it is mandatory to extend the outermost northbound lane north past the Pelham Parkway/Shore Road exit.  Move the footbridge 24 feet over, to allow the space for 2 additional northbound lanes, but construct only the first, bringing that to the right-hand exit to the northbound Hutchinson River Parkway.

But would we want to simply add extra traffic to what is rightfully decried as a grotesque waste of space?

 

Yes, that's right, grotesque.  And I am not just writing about the silly lane drop/traffic choke, further exacerbated by the poor design of I-95 on the inland side of the HRP.  It is an effective wall separating Co Op City from the inland, making it more isolated, less accessible. (How about some proposals for somehow restoring/recreating a portion of the 1960-1964 "Freedomland U.S.A. amusement park).

 

So why not explore the idea of replacing the I-95 segment from the area of its interchange with the HRP northward alongside Co Op City, to the vicinity of its 233rd Street exit, with a new cut and cover enclosed expressway tunnel, removing the I-95 overpass over Barlow Avenue.  Explore ideas for the surface, new parkland, new recreational facilities, new commercial development, perhaps in the spirit of Freedomland?

 

We must improve I-95 between the Throggs Neck Expressway (easily widened to 4 lanes in each direction) and 222nd Street (spot of the northbound lefthand exit that veers inland onto Baychester Avenue.  BEST OPTION: a UNIFIED PLAN, addressing the entire stretch, including replacing the 8 lane trench with a 14 lane set of rectangular box expressway tunnels,equipped with exhaust filtration.  Widen it away from neighborhoods, and replace expand the adjacent parkland atop.

WIDEN the 222nd Street ramps to a minimum of 3 LANES PER DIRECTION.

 

Connect these ramps into an underground link turning to run along the east side of the conveniently situated Dyre Avenue IRT segment of the 1911-1937/43 New York, Westchester & Boston RR, that had its Westchester County segments foolishly demolished during a horrifically caustic scrap medal drive costing way more in demolished assets.

 

RECONSTRUCT the NY, Westchester & Boston main corridor to White Plains, and eventually a further continuation northward, exploring different ideas of such use, including Westchester Airport, all doable incrementally.

RECONSTRUCT architecturally faithful replicas of the original Sandford Boulevard, East 3rd Street, and Metro North transfers in Mt. Vernon, and the Wykagyl in New Rochelle, and 5 Corners in Scarsdale.  Have the expressway tunnel veer to the left, away from the historic "Quaker Ridge" Station at Stratton Road, officially recognized landmark, which would be PRESERVED!  Have the area of the removed houses made into an expanded Carpenters Pond area preserve.  Have the expressway tunnel then veer right of Weaver Street, avoiding the commercial properties, before turning back onto the Heathecote Bypass alignment.  Purchase the required houses for removal, and create a linear green park atop the railway/expressway tunnel.  Use electronic tolling to offset expenses and restrict use.

BUT MAKE IT MORE UNDERGROUND.  A revived NY,W&B makes perfect economic sense with contained development density, and future extensions northward.  And it is going to introduce significant rail car traffic, especially if ever adopted by AMTRAK.

 

Ask Eastchester Heights their preference regarding a NYW&B station, as well as expressway access ramps. 

 

Have it as a cut and cover expressway tunnel alongside the Dyre Avenue IRT line to the Bronx-Westchester County line, and along and or beneath it, northward into the City of White Plains, turning to follow Bryant Avenue to a reconstructed interchange with I-287 and I-684.  Our I-684 Tunnel!  It can take heavy northbound traffic from the Throggs Neck Bridge from Queens/Long Island, effectively upstate to I-84.  

Let's include a new water spillway to alleviate flooding on the lower Hutchinson River.

 

It MUST include, or at least be designed to include, a western split from Eastchester Heights.  This would run through Eastchester in a tunnel following California Road and crossing under Route 22 (with access ramps to the retail area).

 

From there, it could emerge upon a high arched bridge crossing over the Bronx River valley, remaining elevated, to alongside the former Alexanders, crossing over Central Avenue and entering a cut and cover tunnel under Jackson Avenue and emerging again (displacing the nursing home near the Sprain Parkway), and continue to a new interchange with I-87.  This would allow traffic from Long Island the options of transferring to these local arterial.  I would call this segment I-687.

But rather than simply connecting with I-87, have it continue west into Hastings on the Hudson to a new bridge crossing the Hudson River, to connect with the Palisades Parkway New Jersey.  

 

From I-95 by Co Op City, it would be a 10 lane expressway tunnel (accepting 4 northbound lanes from I-95 and 2 northbound lanes from a subsequently constructed Route 1 separate electronically tolled traffic tunnel to Hunts Point favoring trucks).   Of these, 2 lanes would veer off into the tunnel connections for an I-80 Tunnel along 2nd Street in Mt Vernon heading west.  I-684 expressway tunnel would be 4 lanes northbound, and 5 lanes southbound (for a southbound I-684 Tunnel connection to the I-80 Tunnel), continuing underground into Chester Heights, to an underground split to a pair of this tunnel's extensions, 3 lanes northbound, and 2 lanes southbound- to I-684, and 3 lanes each direction towards the new trans Hudson span to the Palisades Parkway.  This overall "Y" Route arrangement establishes an invaluable vital traffic artery between Queens/Long Island, northward to I-684, and westerly to the Palisades Parkway.  

 

UNCORK the northbound Throggs Neck traffic, ported northward to I-684 AND the west via a Hastings on the Hudson Bridge to the Palisades Parkway- considerably superior to porting said traffic all through Brooklyn and Staten Island to a NJTK and I-78.

 

 It is ABSOLUTELY VITAL/REQUIRED/NECESSARY for evacuation from Long Island.