The proposed bus routes would connect neighbors would the waterfront and south to Cornwall's campus of St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital.
By Nancy Peckenham
After two years of study and meetings with the public, a team of planning consultants has come up with a series of proposals meant to improve public transit, traffic routes and land use in he greater Newburgh area during the next two decades. The team was put together by the Orange County Planning Department.
Anyone who drives has seen the problem areas where traffic gets backed up: Five Corners in Vail’s Gate, the intersection of Routes17K and 300 in Newburgh and Route 211 in Montgomery. The planners have identified 17 “hot spots,” intersections that are problems now or are likely to become congested in the years ahead, like Route 9W and Old Forge Hill Road in Cornwall.
Graham Trelstad, of AKRF, Inc., who is leading the consultant team, said the group has proposed solutions to ease pressure on these hot spots, some as simple as changing the timing of lights, like at the intersection of Route 9W and Fostertown Road in Newburgh. Several of the changes require a large capital investment, such as widening Route 207 at the intersection of Route 300 in New Windsor, which carries an estimated price tag of $11.5 million..
At the recent presentation at SUNYs Kaplan Hall, Trelstad said that Orange County expects to receive $500 million in federal and state highway funds over the next five years, money that could be dedicated to achieving the transportation goals laid out in the study.
Improved public transit, more bikeways and pedestrian access also are part of the recommendations submitted by the team. “You can’t build enough capacity in our roadways to solve all of our problems, Trelstad said, stressing the need to support alternatives to vehicles. The team proposed new bus routes connecting neighborhoods north and south of Broadway with Newburgh’s waterfront, Cornwall and Vails Gate, as well as a transit hub at the intersection of Routes 17K and 32 in the city of Newburgh.
Posted bicycle routes and expanded bicycle lanes are also part of the recommendations.
Some of the consultants also studied how neighborhoods could be developed in ways to facilitate pedestrian access to shopping and enhance green space. David Kooris, from the Regional Plan Association, showed how new housing could be built in residential areas that would curb sprawl with thoughtful zoning changes, so-called “smart growth.”
The recommendations of the Newburgh Area Transit Study will be distributed to municipalities so that they can evaluate their comprehensive plans to identify where zoning does not match the study’s stated vision and then work to amend the zoning to be more consistent with the plans.
You can read more about the study at www.newburghareastudy.info
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