Yonkers, N.Y. Hudson River Bridge/Northern Metro Regional Bypass

 

The George Washington Bridge NEEDS alternative routes- the NYC Metro Area must have additional trans Hudson River crossings.  Northwards to the Tappan Zee Bridge, Yonkers is the best, for connecting with the existing east-west Cross County Parkway- a freeway reconstructed during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s that excludes trucks.

Yonkers, NY authorities appear to suggest the preferred site, marked by the naming of "Bridge Street" at the east west axis of Ludlow Streets, where it would land, with its approach eastwards into a hill by Route 9, where the highway would continue within tunnel, with connections to and from the north to the Cross County Parkway.

 

Extend that Yonkers, Ludlow Street axis to New Jersey, where it would land.  It would have connections with the Palisades Parkway.  And it must have a minimum of 6 lane mainline continuing west, as simply linking to the Palisades Parkway is problematic given the lack of a continuous traffic light free link to I-95.  Years ago, 1940s-1950s, the Yonkers, N.Y. - Alpine, New Jersey bridge was proposed to have an all new freeway continuing west, which was not built.  Instead, have a tunnel that arcs southward to follow the Northern RR, to connect with I-95/I-80.  

The I-80/I-95 to bridge link would be via tunnel, cut and cover along the Northern Line., and then curved towards facing Yonkers, with portal by the Palisades Parkway.  Curved portion would be bored to avoid surface disruption, emerging just past Montammy Golf Club, at the Palisades Parkway, to the bridge to Yonkers, N.Y., along Ludlow Street.  A minimum 6 travel lane facility could be either a single tunnel with two levels, or a pair of single or two level tunnels.  Existing 57 foot diameter TBMs require a pair of tunnels, each with a single 3 lane roadway, with only about 6 feet of shoulder space, or a double level 2 lane roadway with the 6 foot shoulder space.  Larger tunnels, 62, 67, 72 feet diameter would be preferable, particularly for line of sight within tunnels that are curved.

 

In Yonkers, this moled land approach tunnel might be a short segment, that emerges to cross atop the Saw Mill River Parkway, elevated over the valley, before entering a second tunnel further east as the topography rises, that extends further east to cross I-87, the Raceway Park parking lot, and the Bronx River into the City of Mt. Vernon, transitioning to cut and cover tunnel along 2nd Street.

 

Or instead it could be continuous with the west Yonkers segment descending to pass beneath Saw Mill River.

 

In Mt. Vernon, this cut and cover tunnel follows 2nd Street before turning south along the old N.Y., Westchester & Boston RR corridor, and continuing in the Bronx alongside that same RR's currently extant Dyre Avenue IRT line, to connect to and from the south with I-95 via an augmented 222nd Street exit, extending to the Throggs Neck Bridge Expressway, and providing a valuable new traffic corridor for handling potential emergency situation evacuation traffic.

 

 

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

 

N.Y. Must Construct Southern Metro Regional Bypass

Twin the OuterBridge, with a pair of 4 lane spans.

 

Widen 440 to minimum of 8 lanes, with reconstructed Charleston/Pleasant Plains interchange.

 

Widen existing I-278 Staten Island Expressway with new outboard roadways within cut and cover tunnel segments, with decking in key spots.

 

Construct a pair of 2 or 3 lane underwater tunnels flanking the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge (more effective than direct New Jersey to Brooklyn link).

Add 3 lanes in each direction to VNB Brooklyn approach, and deck over existing trench expressway.

 

Construct east-west link through south central Brooklyn to reconstructed JFK Airport area Belt corridor, with cut and cover tunnel segments along Sunrise Highway to make a continuous traffic light free expressway to the existing expressway at Amityville.

Brooklyn segment to be cut and cover enclosed tunnel expressway via the Bay Ridge L.I.R.R. corridor and Linden Boulevard to Conduit Avenue, with cut and cover spur to the north to a new underwater tunnel to Hunts Point.  (Would be constructed together with a Quad-borough IRT, which is the proposed Bay Ridge LIRR BiBorough, with extensions to Staten Island and the Bronx).  Would create new grand linear park arcing across Brooklyn and up through Queens.

Belt corridor to be reconstructed with added expressway cut and cover tunnels up to vicinity of Belmont Park, with Hempstead Avenue-212th Place cut and cover tunnel to existing end of Clearview Expressway.   Would create grand new linear park across southern & the outer edge of Queens.

Route 135 is expanded and extended to Westchester County I-287.  Make the shore area as enclosed tunnel, with a 1,000 foot minimum enclosed segment off shore, with a pair of spans to cross over the Long Island Sound.

The Pseudo Progressive Crusade to Constrict Portand Oregon Rose Quarter I-5 Project

I-5 is the main north-south interstate freeway/expressway along the western U.S. coast, comparable to I-95 being the main such road along the eastern U.S. shore.

 

Both I-5 and I-95 were constructed during the 1950s-early 1960s.

 

I-5 through Portland, despite being the main north south such route, is as narrow in some spots to a mere 2 travel lanes in each direction.

 

I-5 is quite highly utilized and congested, as it was constructed when the nation's population was considerably less.

.

Oregon DOT has sought to reconstruct I-5 through Portland.

 

Numerous people have suggested this, as well as the idea of doing this within a new tunnel shell, which could clearly be equipped with exhaust filtration.

 

Oregon DOT proposes a reconstruction of the some one mile segment from the interchanges with I-84 northward to I-405.

 

The projects includes a 4 or 5 block long segment within a new rectangular tunnel box enclosure, a style of design suited for fully encasing traffic noise and exhaust.  This segment is only so long as the project conforms to existing topography, e.g. converting an existing open sloped embankment trench, rather than new excavation to lower the existing roadbed profile.  As this means constructing new tunnel walls, the authorities have sensibly specified a wider profile to include a minimum of two extra through lanes per direction, along with full width (12 foot) shoulders, which are absolutely necessary for emergency service personal such as tow truck drivers.  Its estimated cost is $1.9 billion- that should obviously be paid by the feds, as part of President Joseph Biden's "Build Back Better" program.

 

Nevertheless, a clearly orchestrated chorus of new medievalist, jesuit useful idiots are spouting a nonsensical crusade to undermine the project, making it less useful, under a supposed guise of saving money.

 

An outstanding example of this is so-called "Smart Towns", a non profit tightly allied with wall street, working in concert with something called "City Observatory", which Smart Towns regurgitates the usual anti public service rubbish:

 

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/7/13/why-is-this-freeway-so-expensive-hint-because-its-too-damn-wide

https://cityobservatory.org/revealed-odots-secret-plans-for-a-10-lane-rose-quarter-freeway/

 

A Too Wide Freeway

 

What no one seems willing to do is ask basic questions about the Rose Quarter. Is the project worth $1.9 billion? Does it even need to be that big and expensive? Isn’t the skyrocketing cost and ODOT’s growing fiscal crisis a signal that we should consider some other options?

 

The high cost and prodigious cost overruns of the Rose Quarter are directly related to the excessive width of the project, something that ODOT has gone to great lengths to conceal, characterizing the project as merely adding a single auxiliary lane in each direction. In reality, the project would essentially double the width of I-5 through the Rose Quarter, from its current 82-foot width to 160 feet (and in some places as much as 200 feet).

 

A brief chronology shows how ODOT staff have repeatedly concealed or obscured the width of the I-5 Rose Quarter project. Their initial 2019 Environmental Assessment presented a misleading and cartoonish freeway cross section that appeared to show that the freeway would be widened to about 126 feet....

 

... ODOT’s own consultants, the internationally recognized engineering firm ARUP, concluded that the Rose Quarter project was vastly wider than it needed to be. They pointed out that no comparable urban freeway in any city has the over-wide, 12-foot shoulders designed into the Rose Quarter project [emphasis added]. ARUP concluded that the extreme width of the ODOT design was the principal reason freeway covers cost so much, and said the freeway could be 40 feet narrower than ODOT’s design. ODOT’s own “Cost to Complete” report concedes that a key cost driver is the need to lower the surface of the existing roadway in order to provide the necessary vertical clearance over the much thicker overpass beams that will be needed to span the wider roadway.

 

 ...

 

Covers Alone Could Be Vastly Cheaper

 

If this project consisted simply of building a cover over the existing I-5 freeway, it would be vastly cheaper. Washington’s Department of Transportation is proposing to build a similar cover over a portion of I-5 in Vancouver as part of the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project. The “Community Connector” cover is designed to re-connect historic Fort Vancouver with the city’s downtown. It will be about 300 feet wide, about an acre in size, and is estimated to cost $37 million.

 

ODOT has never explored simply building a lid over the existing freeway to “re-connect” the community. If this were simply about building a cover to re-connect the community, it could have been done by now for a fraction of the $115 million ODOT has spent so far, just on planning the Rose Quarter.

 

What To Do Instead

 

ODOT could cap the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter without widening it. And if ODOT is really committed to “restorative justice,” then reallocate available money for this project as reparations to the Albina community, and allow them to spend it however they see fit to rectify the damage done by the construction of I-5, Interstate Avenue, and the Fremont Bridge ramps. Oregon routinely spends highway funds mitigating the environmental damage of its freeways, on everything from sound walls to wetlands. It also has used highway funds to replace displaced structures (the old Rocky Butte Jail), and other states have used federal highway funds to replace housing destroyed by freeway construction. If we were serious about redressing the harm done to the Albina neighborhood, we’d be looking to reduce the size of I-5, spend more money improving the neighborhood, and build back the housing ODOT destroyed.

 

The project reconstructs a segment of interstate highway - I-5- constructed during the 1950s. It would place new tunnel walls - solid immovable objects - set further out with an existing corridor, basically better utilizing space now occupied by not very useful sloped embankments.

 

Why be skimp on better utilizing this existing transportation corridor, by failing to provide the space for the much needed auxiliary lanes - the segment connects two separate interstate highway interchanges - and failing to provide the required full width shoulders to better protect emergency service personal?

 

Why no mention even of better addressing local neighborhood mitigation with equipping the proposed tunnel box enclosure with auto exhaust filtration, as currently being proposed for New York City's Cross Bronx Expressway? 

 

Why are not more people standing up to this nonsense from well funded high finance "investment" concerns?

 

Lets be honest with ourselves, organizations such as so-called Strong Towns, is clearly yet another of those mercantilist elitist AstroTurf front organizations crafted to distract people from matters of high finance broad economic manipulation to facilitate the vast transfer of wealth and benifits from the many to the few.

 

They use impressionable, gullible "trendy" college students, bearing simplistic, senseless sloganeering, such as with such Jesuit theatrics activist organizations as "Just Stop Oil".

 

They are mercantilists - devoted to market protectionism - whether for pharameceuticals over naturally occuring substances, or fuels.  The anti roads movement is a cleverly CRAFTED enterprise to distract from the matter of adressing cleaner burning higher octane higher Ethanol content fuels. 

 

Ethanol is un patent-able, hence the cleverly crafted disfo campaign against it upon behalf of the American Petroleum Institute for the sake of petro market size, as well as patent-able synthetic "bio-fuels".

 

They use impressionable, gullible "trendy" college students, bearing simplistic, senseless sloganeering, such as with such Jesuit theatrics activist organizations as "Just Stop Oil", and with there played out campaigns against any expansions of the expressways.

It reeks as a de-populationist front organization.