On Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the Kensington Expressway Project had passed another key hurdle, the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) environmental assessment, and would move forward.
The FHWA issued a “Finding of Now Significant Impact” which ends the formal environmental assessment process and will allow the project to move into the final design stages, officials said. Construction on the project is slated to begin in the fall of 2024.
“From the very beginning, the Kensington Expressway Project has been a community-driven effort to restore the greenspace and quality of life wrongfully taken from East Buffalo with the highway’s initial construction,” Hochul said. “Today’s decision by the Federal Highway Administration allows us to move ahead on this transformational project to right the wrongs of the past and start construction later this year. But we are not done yet and will continue to rely on the project’s most important architects — local community members — to share their vision and partner with us as we study opportunities to reconnect the East Buffalo community in a way that makes residents proud.”
The Kensington Expressway Project will reconnect neighborhoods within East Buffalo that have been separated for generations while adding new greenspace to the area, officials said. Hochul said she would direct the New York Department of Transportation to begin a study this year on additional elements to reconnect the community, from a reimagined Scajaquada Expressway to a reimagined Humboldt Parkway.
“The Kensington Expressway project is one that the East Buffalo community has talked about for decades, and under Governor Hochul’s leadership, the vision articulated by the residents of East Buffalo, is now a reality,” New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez said. “The stars are aligned for this project and there will never be a better opportunity to start transforming the landscape of East Buffalo than at this very moment. The construction of the original Kensington Expressway carved a deep wound in the fabric of East Buffalo and now the healing process can officially begin.”
The $1 billion includes the replacement of the below-grade expressway with a 4,150-foot long tunnel, reconstruction of Humboldt Parkway, rehabilitation of nine miles of local streets, replacement of Best Street Bridge and installation of 11-acres of greenspace. The federal government will provide more than $55 million in funding for the project through the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.