SCHUMER BRINGS 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, Buttigieg Joins Schumer In Buffalo To See Firsthand How Buffalo Can Be A National Model For Equity
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 brought Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Buffalo to see firsthand how the proposed Kensington Expressway transformation can serve as a national model and meet with 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 marked a very significant step forward for the effort to rectify the division, public health damage and inequality created by the original expressway through adjacent communities.
“Buffalo neighborhoods have been torn apart by the Kensington Expressway for decades, and this $55 million investment from the Reconnecting Communities Program will help jumpstart the effort to reconnect the Humboldt Parkway community. This funding will play a key role in laying the foundation for a more equitable future here in Buffalo, which is why I was excited to bring Transportation Secretary Buttigieg to Buffalo and show him first hand exactly how the investment will help bridge divides and reunite the community,” said Senator Schumer. “Our infrastructure should connect, not divide our communities – That’s why I fought so hard to create and fund the Reconnecting Communities program, and why I later personally called Transportation Secretary Buttigieg to secure this major federal funding. The transformation of the divisive Kensington Expressway will be a game changer for Buffalo and will serve as a model for equity across the nation.”
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.
This grant also builds on the $25 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant that Schumer secured last year to help better reconnect Buffalo’s East Side by finally fixing the roadway between Goodell St. and the Kensington Avenue.
Kensington Expressway began construction in the 1950’s on what is now known as Route 33 along the path of Humboldt Parkway, replacing what had been a grand, tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux with a below-grade highway that divided and stifled economic growth for the Martin Luther King and Hamlin Park neighborhoods on Buffalo’s East Side.
