Injunction Application Announced Against the Proposed Billion Dollar Tunnel

On Monday, October 7th at 11:00 am, the East Side Parkways Coalition (ESP) will hold a press conference on one of the last remaining green swaths of Humboldt Parkway, just north of the Science Museum, at Humboldt Parkway and Northampton St., announcing the filing of a court application to stop the State from awarding contracts or commencing construction of the Toxic Tunnel and to stop other work for the Kensington Expressway.

ESP is committed to restoring Humboldt Parkway to connect Delaware and MLK Parks with a Bidwell Parkway like linear Park, per the original Olmsted design. ESP is opposed to New York State Department of Transportation’s (NYSDOT’s) plan to pound soldier piles behind the massive existing and badly deteriorated concrete retaining walls, followed by removal of those walls, and blasting/digging-down as much as 20-feet deeper at the northern Tunnel end, then re-pouring new retaining walls. All this proposed work would only create a 4,150-foot-long Tunnel between Sidney Street and Dodge Street, a fraction of the Kensington Expressway.

ESP has retained legal counsel to challenge this proposal and to ensure NYSDOT complies with all applicable State laws. Rather than just focusing on a 12- block-long stretch, the billion dollar State investment should ‘Reconnect the Community’ to the greatest extend possible!

ESP is challenging NYSDOT’s determination under the NY State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) that the proposed Tunnel will have no significant adverse environmental impacts. Instead of preparing an in-depth Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that would fully explore the effects of its project and expose the harm to be done by 4 ½ years of heavy construction and blasting, NYSDOT elected to use a fast-tracked Environmental Assessment (EA) review. Three filed Article 78 proceedings contend that SEQRA requires the preparation of an EIS before this project may proceed, given the size, scope, and extensive mitigations required. ESP is joined by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the Western New York Youth Climate Council (WNYYCC) in filing the Article 78 proceedings calling for an EIS.

The East Side Parkways Coalition urges Governor Hochul, NYS Chair of the Transportation Committee Senator Jeremy Cooney, and NYS Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes to take action and to require NYSDOT to prepare an EIS to guarantee a full analysis of the environmental impacts of the project, and to provide more healthful alternatives including the complete removal of the Kensington Expressway and the full restoration of Frederick Law Olmsted’s original Humboldt Parkway design.

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