New York City Could Cap Cross Bronx Expressway

New York City’s “hated” Cross Bronx Expressway moves 200,000 vehicles per day through the borough, damaging the air quality in surrounding neighborhoods, writes Dave Colon in Streetsblog NYC. “The COVID-19 pandemic made the situation even more urgent, since the air pollution from traffic on the highway had already inflicted massive respiratory damage to residents of neighborhoods surrounding the highway, and those residents were then much more likely to have died of coronavirus as the pandemic raged through the city.”

Now, Colon writes, “The city Department of Transportation has announced a big-time multi-agency effort to ‘re-imagine’ the Cross Bronx Expressway, with the help of the state Department of Transportation, the city Planning Department and (wait for it) the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.”

While Colon expresses little confidence that the freeway could be eliminated altogether, a freeway cap and park is one possible alternative that could be funded through federal infrastructure funds aimed at repairing the damage caused by freeway construction. “Although the engagement and outreach on the study won’t begin until later this year, the city’s listed goals of creating new public open space and improving the quality of life along the highway corridor suggest that some form of capping the highway could be on the table.”