December 14-20, 2018 Your Neighborhood — Your News® 75 cents
SERVING THROGGS NECK, PELHAM BAY, COUNTRY CLUB, CITY ISLAND, WESTCHESTER SQUARE, MORRIS PARK, VAN NEST, PELHAM PARKWAY, CASTLE HILL, ALLERTON
Needs highway on-, off-ramps to relieve traffi c
DOT approves MP ‘raod diet’ over opposition
Vol. 38 No. 50 www.bxtimes.com
Sharing Holiday Cheer
HUTCH-METRO
ACCESS STUDY
Continued on Page 98
Continued on Page 98
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
The approval of controversial
traffi c fl ow changes on a
Morris Park artery has community
leaders contemplating
legal action.
A one and a half mile NYC
Department of Transportation
traffi c calming and safety
project – otherwise known as
a ‘road diet’ – was approved for
Morris Park Avenue over community
objections in a decision
made public on Thursday,
December 6.
Morris Park Community
Association vigorously opposed
the plan for the road
diet, and Community Board
11 voted overwhelming not
to support it when it was fi rst
proposed.
Nevertheless, DOT will
proceed with its plan for the
corridor as it was originally
proposed in January, with the
current two travel lanes in either
direction reduced to one
from Melville Street in Van
Nest to Newport Avenue in
Morris Park.
The plan should be implemented
in spring 2019, with
roadway line painting installations
taking approximately
one month depending on
weather, stated a DOT spokesman.
It calls for the creation of
left-turns bays and a fl ush median
in the center of the roadway
and dedicated bicycle
lanes, and would ban southbound
left turns from Unionport
Road.
Al D’Angelo, MPCA president,
said that the road diet is
just something that the association
cannot accept.
“(DOT’s) argument is that
it cuts down on accidents,”
said D’Angleo, who said he expects
there to be traffi c tie ups
and delayed emergency vehicles
on Morris Park Avenue.
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
A long-awaited traffi c study
has shed light on the feasibility
of adding roadways to ease
traffi c congestion at a busy offi
ce complex.
Community leaders have
obtained a copy of a study that
looks into the scope of work
and costs associated with constructing
roads that would
connect the south-bound
Hutchinson River Parkway
and Marconi Street, near the
sprawling Hutchinson Metro
Center and the city’s 911 Call
Center off Pelham Parkway.
The roadways being considered
would include both
on- and off-ramps to and from
the parkway, as well as a road
cut through the center of the
Hutch-Metro development
that would link to Marconi
Street, said Joe Kelleher, Simone
Metro Properties president,
which operates the offi ce
park.
“We certainly feel it would
be a great asset for us and to
the entire area to have an access
road off of the Hutchinson
River Parkway,” said Kelleher,
adding it would serve all of
the complex’s tenants and the
city’s 911 Call Center.
Outgoing Senator Jeff
Klein funded the study, which
was announced with fanfare
in May 2015 and began in summer
2015 with a $1 million allocation
to the NYC Department
of Transportation.
The funding for the feasibility
study was to produce a
timeline and budget for the
work, said Kelleher.
It came on the heels of an
earlier Department of City
Planning study of the Hutchinson
River Parkway corridor
during the Bloomberg administration
that raised the possibility
of direct access to the
Hutchinson Metro Center area
from the parkway, said Kelleher.
“Klein was trying to raise
the funds to make this study
a reality, which has not happened
yet but which I think
will,” said Kelleher.”
Kelleher believes that a direct
link to the parkway would
encourage future economic
development, not only at the
Hutchinson Metro Center but
the area around the complex,
and also provide another way
to access a Metro North station
scheduled to arrive in
2023 near Eastchester Road.
He also stressed that the
DOT study contains estimates
and projections, and that the
type of work needed or the cost
may change or be different
from what is in the study.
The study was completed in
the spring, but released to the
community recently.
It contains a projected bud-
Children and their families embraced the holiday spirit at Community
Board 7 and the 52nd Precinct’s annual Christmas Tree
Lighting Ceremony on Thursday, December 6 at Mosholu Parkway
and Bainbridge Avenue. Jaylen Segura received a holiday goodie
bag from Father Christmas. See photo spread on page 56.
Photo by Miriam Quin
/www.bxtimes.com