Monroe, NY – U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is pushing New York transportation officials to use $1 million in already-secured funds to finally start the expansion of an often-congested upstate highway.
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In letter sent Thursday to state transportation officials, the New York Democrat demands that the funds be used for their intended purpose: studying and designing the widening of a 37-mile stretch of Route 17 to three lanes in both directions from Harriman to Monticello.
Schumer secured the federal funds in 2005, but he says the state has failed to even begin the study process.
Schumer says expanding Route 17 between Orange and Sullivan counties would alleviate some of the backups that frequently clog that stretch of highway.
A call to transportation department officials wasn’t immediately returned.
Imagine government actually spending time and money on the purpose for which it was actually created: infrastructure.
Its about time!!!
If he secured $$$ in 2005 and they havent been spent do they still exist??? And what is the funding for the current construction that had us all sitting in our cars hoping to make it upstate in time for shabbos this summer ???
I thought they were working on this already. This past summer going up and down I noticed work being done at some areas of the 17 being widened?????
Good old Chuck wants to make sure the Yidden get to their bungalows in time for Shabbos.
so there will be construction for another ten years…
There was a project to change the designation of Route 17 to Interstate 86 a number of years ago, which would’ve gotten additional funding for such an expansion, but that’s been stalled for years. The best thing to do to make this happen would probably be to make 17 part of the Thruway system, but that will mean tolls (or increasing the toll at the barrier in Harriman significantly). Then of course there will be the innumerable environmental impact studies……
BRAVO mr. schumer
to all you nay sayers Senator schumer is hard at work for the right things that MATTER .
The construction being done between exits 121 and 118 was just to build an underpass underneath the highway , and not to widen it.
ten years to study id and another ten to actually do it!! – gevalt………….
Just a slight techish point. The standard way of describing the number of lanes is to count the total that go in both directions. hence a basic suburban/rural road with one lane in each direction is called… “two lanes”. Route 17, which in most of this area is currently two lanes in each direction would be called “four lane”.
(And if we get another one in each direction, it’ll be a “six lane highway”).
what a waste of money…the road only gets crowded on a few weekends in the summer and licht benchen is late anyway so there is no need to rush. Why don’t they spend this money on helping poor people with their needs for better health care, food stamps and housing.
I hope that when I drive by the construction site I will see workers working and not taking coffee breaks, smoking, etc…. then maybe it won’t take 10 years to get done.
IYH The chasidim should get to Wal Mart in time to return their air-conditioners before the 90 days run out.
A chaver of a chaver of mine got there late, last summer, and ended having to keep the AC, costing him about $300. It’s about time they expand the road.
Adding lanes to reduce congestion is like opening your belt a notch to lose weight — the opposite will happen. Traffic engineers have known this for 50 years, but unfortunately politicians like Schumer and some car-addicted citizens haven’t caught on yet.
Highway construction is more than a million dollars a mile and someplaces it’s almost a million dollars a yard. That million dollars will not get you very far.