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Buttigieg visits Buffalo for Kensington Expressway deck funding

The state taxpayer funded project will include $55 million from the federal government and $1 billion from New York.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — On Friday, there was in-person confirmation that a $55 million grant from the Federal Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act is going to be used for a project to cover a portion of the Route 33 Kensington Expressway in Buffalo.  

That announcement actually came out weeks ago. But Friday we saw a celebration and in many ways a culmination of a 15-year effort by members of the East Buffalo community to try to get this decking project over lanes of the inner city highway near Best Street.

There will actually be connecting streets and some parkland on that deck with the aim of re-connecting the neighborhood along Humboldt Parkway. Some say that area was ripped apart by a "concrete scar" when the six-lane roadway was built in the 1960s.       

So on Friday, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg flew in to make it official as he welcomed the crowd at the Buffalo Science Museum and again explained the commitment of the U.S. Department of Transportation to this project.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says it is the largest grant from a $1 billion fund of taxpayer money designated for projects across the country to re-connect communities of color.    

Governor Hochul also previously announced in her budget, that $1 billion from state taxpayers will be used for this project. 

In terms of the effort, 2 On Your Side spoke earlier with a UB engineering professor who did say there could be numerous construction challenges with this project. He mentioned the need to dig further under the existing road surface and build a ventilated tunnel structure for traffic on the expressway. There also could be numerous detours, noise, and dust associated with any major construction project. It has been compared to similar projects in Dallas and Seattle. 

The political powers in community have aligned with the strong efforts of the 15 year old Restore Our Community Coalition to push this project forward.  

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