Bronxites to DOT: Hit the Brakes on Cross Bronx Expansion, Greenlight Community Health & Safety

BRONX, NY (03/09/2026) (readMedia)-- This morning, ahead of tomorrow's federal deadline to finalize the project's environmental determination, Bronx residents and environmental justice lawyers held a virtual press conference urging Governor Hochul and the State Department of Transportation to halt all remaining plans for a bigger Cross Bronx and repair the highway within its existing footprint. With construction slated for this spring, officials are considering expanding the Cross Bronx 50 feet closer to 3,000 public housing residents already battling toxic air quality across the street.

Watch a recording of the virtual conference here.

During the original public comment period, community members identified significant health and environmental impacts for the 64,000-plus residents living along the sited project area - all tied to the state's expansion plans. Despite repeated requests to extend the public comment period and explore safer project alternatives with community members, state officials have sidestepped both asks after granting Bronxites only the holiday season to review the nearly 6000-page environmental assessment. Under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, impacted residents have up to 4 months to appeal NYSDOT's final decision, if officials move forward with an expansion.

"The Bronx has been neglected for decades, thanks to a history of racist, environmentally destructive infrastructure design. To this day, families here are choking on highway pollution, yet somehow, officials are still considering taking us back another half a century with a Cross Bronx expansion. The idea of saddling frontline communities with even more congestion and illness is simply unconscionable. Right now, a major part of the Bronx's future hinges on the path state leadership chooses tomorrow. We are urging the Governor to halt the expansion and invest in mitigation to protect our communities before it's too late," said Siddhartha Sánchez, Executive Director of the Bronx River Alliance.

"A $900-million highway project in one of the most historically and presently overburdened corridors in New York, deserves a careful and thorough environmental review," said Damon Gilbert, attorney with the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. "The state's draft environmental assessment left key questions unanswered, including the project's scope and projected emissions, how it may compound the Bronx's existing pollution burdens, and whether safer alternatives were properly considered. We strongly urge the state to undertake and complete an adequately rigorous review of the project's real-world impacts on the surrounding communities and the climate."

"Rammed by Robert Moses through neighborhoods that still depend on public transit today, the Cross Bronx Expressway is America's most notorious highway and widening it would be a clear abomination. It's no surprise such a sham project is matched by a botched process that fails to consider its devastating environmental impacts or even the obvious alternatives," said Riders Alliance Policy & Communications Director Danny Pearlstein. "This is simply the kind of embarrassment New Yorkers have become accustomed to from a Department of Transportation that is stuck in the last century and ranks 49th in the nation, lagging behind North Dakota, barely ahead of Alabama. Until Governor Hochul rejects this awful proposal, returns it to the drawing board, and reforms the bureaucracy that produced it, we can expect more of the same. Whether in litigation, via legislation, or otherwise, New Yorkers must step in and stop our state from expanding the Cross Bronx's noxious shadow over the communities it disserves."

"We are at the moment of truth where Governor Hochul and the State's Department of Transportation can either break from decades of destructive highway planning or pile even more harm onto communities already extraordinarily overburdened by racist planning from the past," said Renae Reynolds, Executive Director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign. "For generations, the Cross Bronx Expressway has brought traffic, polluted air, and some of the highest asthma rates in the state to Bronx neighborhoods. Widening the highway does not make people safer, it'll only bring more cars, more trucks, and dirtier air to breathe. These bridges can be repaired within the existing footprint. With the health of over 64,000 Bronx residents on the line, the state should focus on fixing what is already there instead of repeating the mistakes that have harmed this community for decades."

"Save the Sound firmly stands with the Bronxites opposing a project that would harm their quality of life and the few remaining natural resources our borough has worked so diligently to preserve and protect," said David Abreu, Clean Water Advocacy Specialist, Save the Sound. "During the public comment period, we reiterated our concerns with the project's potential stormwater impact on the Bronx River, NYSDOT's failure to consider cumulative impacts and comply with New York's Climate Law, and the rushed review timeline. As we await the final environmental determination, we urge officials to reject all plans to expand the Cross Bronx Expressway, protect the Bronx River and surrounding communities, and invest in comprehensive transportation alternatives along the corridor."

BACKGROUND

The New York State Department of Transportation is currently proposing the Cross Bronx "5 Bridges Project," a $900-million plan (including $150 million of federal funding for reconnecting communities harmed by highways) that threatens to exacerbate environmental inequities facing the South Bronx. Despite heeding community concerns and scrapping four of its most noxious plans - including a new mile-long polluting roadway - Governor Hochul and NYSDOT are not reducing traffic and are still proposing expanding the Cross Bronx by 50 feet.

The Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition is urging NYSDOT and Governor Hochul to conduct the needed standard bridge repair without expanding the highway, and work with community members toward more equitable, environmentally just traffic and air quality solutions for the corridor.

Why Expanding the Cross Bronx Isn't Viable

The Cross Bronx's enormous environmental footprint has only worsened over the years. In the U.S., fossil fuel-powered vehicles are a major source of air pollution and heat-trapping emissions, releasing more than 50% of the nitrogen oxide found in our air. Nearly 150,000 vehicles, including 18,000 trucks, use the Cross Bronx daily, a figure that will increase if state DOT proceeds with its planned expansion of the structure.

In 2022, NYSDOT illegally dumped pieces of the roadway directly into the Bronx River after demolishing a Cross Bronx entrance ramp during a similar rehabilitation project. Even if the state files permits, local residents are still concerned that DOT's project may similarly impact the river, under the current "5 Bridges" project. Thanks to sustained remediation efforts, wildlife has slowly returned to the river following the incident, including threatened birds such as herons and dolphins. But during ongoing river clean-ups with local volunteers, residents continue to find construction waste tossed from the expressway into the recovering waterway. State DOT's remaining plan threatens to reverse this hard-won progress and drive worsened air quality, increased pollution, and more chronic illness in an already overburdened community.

Community Alternatives for the Cross Bronx

Since the 1970s, community members have long advocated for investment in safe, dignified, and simple improvements for South Bronx neighborhoods. Residents successfully advocated for the expansion of Starlight Park, which has doubled in size after years of organizing to transform the space into a vital community resource. But existing east-west corridors along the Cross Bronx, including some of its most dangerous intersections on 174th Street, 177th Street, and East Tremont Avenue have been ignored and neglected for decades.

In 2014, City Council awarded NYCDOT the funds to create signalized crossings at five intersections around E 177th St. and E Tremont Ave. Over a decade later, the project still hasn't been completed, depriving local residents of accessible pathways. The state's planned expansion ignores the rest of E 177th St and other proposed connections along the highway, in a departure from residents' top priorities. As outlined in the community's visioning process for the Cross Bronx, Bronxites are seeking alternatives that reduce traffic, restore community access to green space, and reconnect riverside neighborhoods along the expressway.

About Bronx River Alliance: The Bronx River Alliance serves as a coordinated voice for the river and works in harmonious partnership to protect, improve and restore the Bronx River corridor so that it can be a healthy ecological, recreational, educational and economic resource for the communities through which the river flows.

About the Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition: The Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion coalition is composed of Bronx grassroots groups, environmental justice organizations, and advocates for safe and healthy transportation. Together, we are fighting to implement a positive community-led vision that reverses the harms done to the public health, environment, and social and economic life of the Bronx by the Expressway. To realize this vision requires stopping new highway expansions along the Cross Bronx – beginning with New York State DOT's current plan to widen the CBE.

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