Temporary Restraining Order for Buffalos ‘Road Project’

A judge has ordered that no work will begin or proceed on the controversial project to eventually cover part of the 33 with a tunnel, a small victory for advocates who say the expensive proposal will cause health and environmental problems. 

State Supreme Court Justice Emilio Coaliacovo made the announcement Wednesday, prohibiting any work until at least a hearing on the project, already scheduled for October 25. 

The determination comes two days after a press conference from the East Side Parkways Coalition called for the project to be drastically redesigned to better align with the original vision for Buffalo, which includes connecting Delaware and Martin Luther King Parks. 

“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 (New York State Department of Transportation) to prepare an (environmental impact statement) 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,” the group says. 

The $1 billion project, which proposes building a tunnel over a stretch of the 33 and planting trees on top of it to mimic the conjoined parkway, has the approval of Gov. Hochul, who has said she wanted work to begin on the project by the end of the year. 

“As Governor Hochul has said before, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to correct one of the most damaging planning injustices of the 20th century, and we look forward to reconnecting this community soon,” the governor’s office said in a statement Wednesday after the judge’s decision was released.