SCHUMER WILL BRING TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY PETE BUTTIGIEG TO WNY TO SPOTLIGHT BUFFALO AS ONE OF THE FIRST IN THE NATION TO TAP THE BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE LAW’S HISTORIC RECONNECTING COMMUNITIES PROGRAM
After Personally Calling USDOT To Help Secure $55 Million From “Reconnecting Communities” Program, Schumer Will Now Bring Secretary Buttigieg To Visit Buffalo
Schumer: Buffalo’s Neighborhoods Were Torn Apart By The Kensington Expressway – Fed $$$ Will Help Bridge Divides And Reconnect Communities
Following his successful push to secure $55 million for the redesign of Buffalo’s Kensington Expressway from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act’s Reconnecting Communities Program, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer today announced that he will bring Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Buffalo to visit the project site and meet with stakeholder groups, elected leaders and community members. With Buffalo among the first in the nation to tap this historic funding from the Reconnecting Communities program, Schumer said that Buttigieg’s visit will mark a very significant leap forward for the effort to rectify the division, public health damage and inequality created by the original expressway through adjacent communities.
“Our infrastructure should connect, not divide our communities, and that is why I personally called Transportation Secretary Buttigieg to advocate for this major federal funding for the 33, Kensington Expressway project. I am thrilled to bring Secretary Pete Buttigieg to visit the site and see exactly how this federal funding will help bridge divides that the expressway created in these Buffalo communities,” said Senator Schumer. “This $55 million from the Reconnecting Communities program is a big win for Buffalo that will help redesign the roadway not just for cars but for pedestrians and bicyclists with traffic-calming measures, crosswalks, bicycle lanes, and pedestrian and bicycle signals. It would also include a tree-lined walkable park in the median with gardens, sidewalks, and benches, connecting it with the adjacent Martin Luther King Jr. Park.”
Schumer added, “This is truly a historic day for Buffalo, and I thank the community groups like Restore Our Community Coalition and Governor Hochul – who has been a real leader on this, and look forward to having Senator Gillibrand, Rep. Higgins, Mayor Brown, Majority Leader Crystal People Stokes, Sen. Tim Kennedy and the state delegation in my corner as we begin to reconnect neighborhoods torn apart by the Kensington Expressway.”
The Reconnecting Communities program was created in part by Senator Schumer in earlier legislation and he spearheaded including it in the Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs Law to help communities, like Buffalo, remove barriers like old highways and other transportation infrastructure that has limited connectivity and too often left decay and public health legacies in its wake.
This is the first year of the $1 billion dollar program, making Buffalo one of the first communities to receive funding for this historic initiative. The Kensington Expressway project, sponsored by the state with Governor Hochul, will transform the current expressway into a 6-lane tunnel extending from under Dodge Street to Sydney Street. Above ground, Humboldt Parkway would be redesigned not just for cars but for pedestrians and bicyclists with traffic-calming measures, crosswalks, bicycle lanes, and pedestrian and bicycle signals. It would also include a tree-lined walkable linear park in the median with Victorian gardens, sidewalks, and benches, connecting it with the adjacent Martin Luther King Jr. Park. The $55 million Reconnecting Communities grant will go towards funding this vision.
