U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand warned The Buffalo News Editorial Board last week of a colossal cost increase and decadeslong delay if there were changes to the Kensington Expressway project.
Gillibrand, an early backer of the nearly $1 billion plan to rebuild part of the Kensington Expressway, told The Buffalo News that removing the highway entirely would be grossly more time-consuming and expensive, with no guarantee of success.
The New York Democrat’s communications director acknowledged this week she came up with those estimates on the spot, without having researched alternatives.
Gillibrand’s comments were meant to “make a point” and were not based on anything concrete, Evan Lukaske said.
In the on-the-record conversation, the senator said the cost to remove the Kensington, restore the full Humboldt Parkway it replaced and redraw a regional transportation plan would range from $20 billion to $50 billion – a staggering sum considering the current project’s price tag is $921.8 million.
“She was making a point about the cost an undertaking like that would be,” Lukaske said.
The state Department of Transportation chose not to study what it would cost to fill in the expressway to convert it to a parkway, concluding on the basis of a traffic…
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