Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion to NYSDOT: Leave Your Trash Out of Our River

BRONX, NY (07/10/2025) (readMedia)-- The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is currently pushing a $900 million plan to expand the Cross Bronx Expressway, rather than simply rehabilitating the existing roadway and five bridges that need repair. As plans move forward and residents demand State DOT repair the bridges without expanding the highway, residents are also concerned that the agency will continue its pattern of neglecting the environmental regulations and community needs. In 2022 during a ramp replacement project, DOT illegally dumped construction debris directly into the Bronx River.

"For decades, Bronx residents have poured our time, energy, and care into cleaning up the Bronx River. The Bronx River is a living, sensitive ecosystem that serves thousands of our neighbors every week yet as recently as 2022 the State illegally treated it as an industrial dumping ground. We refuse to let officials treat our river like a landfill. As State DOT advances plans to rehabilitate the Cross Bronx, it must commit to proper waste management and guarantee that no construction debris, stormwater runoff, or other refuse will pollute the river during and after construction," said Siddhartha Sánchez, Executive Director of the Bronx River Alliance.

After demolishing the 70-year-old westbound ramp to the Cross Bronx, DOT illegally dumped concrete into the river - undermining years of community-led clean-up and restoration work. Thanks to sustained local remediation efforts, animal life has slowly returned to the river following the incident, including birds and dolphins as recently as 2023. But during ongoing volunteer clean-ups, residents continue to find construction waste tossed from the expressway into the recovering waterway. The pending Cross Bronx Expressway "5 bridges" rehabilitation project, set to begin in 2026, threatens to reverse this hard-won progress and cause even more harm to a community already overburdened by pollution and environmental injustice.

VIEW photos and videos of DOT dumping debris into the river.

DOT's currently weighing two repair options for the five Cross Bronx bridges. Community members are fighting back against Option 1, which proposes a second roadway the same size as six lanes as a traffic diversion structure that would then be converted into a permanent, parallel highway after construction. By adding an additional highway to the corridor, Option 1 would only exacerbate existing environmental and health inequities for residents who already disproportionately suffer from pollution-driven childhood asthma. Instead, Bronxites are backing community alternatives that prioritize essential roadway and bridge repairs and pedestrian-friendly improvements without adding more highway infrastructure.

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.

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