By Dave Hill/hilld@gnnewspaper.com
Greater Niagara Newspapers
October 04, 2007 10:06 pm
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WHEATFIELD — Despite the objection of residents, state transportation officials have all but ruled out any possibility of moving the Niagara Falls Boulevard project in Wheatfield ahead of its targeted 2011 start date.
It also appears that studies to determine whether the 50 mph speed limit on Niagara Falls Boulevard should be lowered will not be conducted until the spring — if at all.
“It’s extremely difficult to advance this beyond that point because of funding implications,” Darrell F. Kaminski, the state Department of Transportation’s regional design engineer for Western New York, said during a public information meeting Thursday night at the Wheatfield Community/Senior Center.
The funding implications are that the $28.9 million the Niagara Falls Boulevard project is estimated to cost is not going to be allocated until 2011, Kaminski said. Another impediment is its size.
“There is a tremendous amount of work to be done on a project of this magnitude,” Kaminski said.
Officials estimate needing to acquire parts of 127 different properties along the 3-mile construction route, from Kreuger Road to Walmore Road. It’s a lengthy process that involves mapping, appraising, negotiating and then, finally, actually acquiring each parcel.
“We just cannot do that in a couple of months,” said Craig Mozrall, an assistant regional design engineer.
Mozrall told the crowd of approximately 35 people — about 130 people filtered in throughout the entire four-hour session — that in order to bump up the Niagara Falls Boulevard reconstruction, another project of similar cost elsewhere in the state would have to be moved out. That, he said, is not likely to happen because it would upset residents of that community.
“I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s not very likely,” Mozrall said, adding that Wheatfield’s is considered a “high-priority project,” but it’s one that is not projected to start until 2011, “and not earlier.”
Nearly 50 residents signed a petition asking the DOT to move the project ahead. In light of several serious car accidents along that stretch of Route 62, including a double fatality last month, residents and business owners at the very least want the speed limit reduced.
That, too, is not likely to happen anytime soon, a point with which Samuel Cirrito strongly objects.
“It’s a shame when you walk out of your building and you’ve got to watch these people suffering and being taken away in helicopters and their car’s on fire and everything else,” said Cirrito, who owns a transmission shop at 2742 Niagara Falls Blvd.
“They’re going to leave it like it is, I understand that, because they’re on a schedule. But I think they’ve got to do something about temporarily reducing the speed limit.”
Kevin Cirrito, who operates a Snap-on tools dealership behind the transmission shop, was also concerned about the accidents.
“There have been six people that have died in front of the building we own in the last two years,” he said.
Thomas E. Messana, a regional transportation system operations engineer for the DOT, said because of the current phase of construction on Niagara Falls Boulevard, the state won’t be able to conduct a speed limit reduction study until the spring.
While acknowledging that motorists on that stretch of Route 62 are traveling over 55 mph, Messana said that lowering the speed limit won’t solve the problem.
“That historically increases accidents,” he said. “It doesn’t decrease them.” Messana added that enforcement of the speed limit will get motorists to slow down.
“From an engineering standpoint, it doesn’t work to put up a black and white sign that says 45 mph when the road conditions allow cars to drive 55 mph. What slows them down is the officer on the next block pulling them over.”
Kevin Guenther, who owns Suzanne’s Fine Dining, expressed a different concern with the project. He would like to see the utility work completed as quickly as possible once roadwork begins. He said that would speed up construction.
“I don’t think anybody on the boulevard can afford to have construction in front of them for three years,” he said.
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