What was the Community Plan?
In 1997, the State Department of Transportation began the Bruckner-Sheridan Interchange project, which focused on creating easier truck access to Hunts Point. SDOT's original plan was to extend the Sheridan Expressway down Edgewater Road. The SBRWA was created shortly after this plan was revealed in protest; we believed there had to be an option that was not highway expansion.
Local residents recognized the need to create safe and efficient truck access to Hunts Point’s industrial areas – indeed, the existing road system dumps trucks onto local streets, where they kill and injure local residents every year. Together, we challenged the NYSDOT assumption that truck access could only be created by sacrificing access to the waterfront. Since 1999, our organizations have worked together to design a more economically and ecologically sensible solution to local traffic and land use problems associated with the Sheridan Expressway.
The Community Plan that was created consisted of three major elements:
SOUTH
NORTH
1. Providing access from the Bruckner Expressway to Hunts Point at Leggett Avenue
First, building new access ramps (both East and Westbound on- and off-ramps) from the Bruckner Expressway into and out of Hunts Point at Leggett Avenue would provide efficient truck access into the Hunts Point Market, the Fulton Fish Market and other industrial uses on the peninsula. Access at Leggett Avenue would better serve drivers coming from and going to Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn than NYSDOT’s proposal, which forces drivers to use the desperately congested Cross Bronx Expressway. Bringing trucks onto the peninsula at Leggett Avenue would also keep traffic away from the residential area and the waterfront.
2. Removing the Sheridan
Second, placing a new interchange at Leggett Avenue would allow for the removal of the underutilized Sheridan Expressway, since trucks would now have a direct access to Hunts Point via the Bruckner Expressway. The removal (or, demapping) of the Sheridan would open up 28 acres of open space for new uses including open space and housing. This land would be close to the subway, the new parks, and the river waterfront. According to our plan, there would be room for 1,200 units of affordable housing, 200,000 square feet of commerical and community space, and the possibility for 700+ new jobs. And because the land would be publicly owned, new housing would remain permanently affordable so that the residents of the South Bronx could remain in the community that they are working to transform. The new community on the Sheridan would unite previously isolated neighborhoods of the South Bronx, and offer a better quality of life for the area.
3. Elevating portions of the Bruckner to improve safety
Third, our plan would elevate the Bruckner Expressway between Hunts Point Avenue and the east bank of the Bronx River. This stretch of the Bruckner is currently at street-level and provides little pedestrian access out of and into Hunts Point. The removal of the Sheridan and the elevation of the Bruckner would get rid of congestion and pedestrian danger zones such as the one at Hunts Point Ave. and Bruckner Blvd. The local streets that are disconnected because of the street-level Brucker would be reconnected; creating safe pedestrian/bike routes in and out of Hunts Point. Retail on Westchester Ave. would be able to expand across the river, and there would be space for new bike/pedestrian lanes across the river leading to the new Concrete Plant Park.
Oak Point Ramps and Plan 1E
In June 2008, NYSDOT announced that it had abandoned their plan to expand the Sheridan because it was physically impossible (something SBRWA had been telling them for years). It announced it was studying two final alternatives for the Bruckner-Sheridan Interchange: 1E, a variation of the Community Plan that takes down the Sheridan, and 2E, which keeps the Sheridan. Both plans included a new set of ramps at Oak Point fright yard. Because Plan 1E is a better version of our original Community Plan and allows for the Sheridan lands to be developed for the South Bronx community, SBRWA has decided to support Plan 1E.
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