Click to see a video of the Community Plan to redevelop the Sheridan Expressway!
The Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance (SBRWA) is a collaboration of
community-based organizations and larger city-wide organizations whose mission is to:
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remove the Sheridan Expressway and create housing, open space, businesses, and jobs in its place
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create efficient and safe truck access to the Hunts Point Peninsula in a manner that benefits the health of local residents and the economy of the Bronx
The Alliance comprised of the following organizations:
Nos Quedamos ~ Youth Ministries for Peace & Justice ~ Sustainable S. Bronx ~ Mothers On the Move
      
The Point CDC ~ Tri State Transportation Campaign ~ Pratt Center
December 5th, 2012
Residents Come Together for Community Town Hall
Battle for Future of Sheridan Expressway Continues
Over 100 South Bronx residents converged at the “Sheridan Town Hall” at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School on December 5th. The meeting kicked-off the next phase in the campaign to radically trans-form the Sheridan Expressway corridor from a divided neighborhood
with an underused highway in a dysfunctional transportation network
to a safe, healthy, thriving neighborhood that exemplifies social and environmental justice.
To read the press release click here. A piece by Streetsblog about the event can be viewed here.
June 8th, 2011
Is removing the Sheridan Expressway SBRWA's only goal?
Absolutely Not!
As community advocates, the economic development of the Bronx is among our top concerns, and we want the Hunts Point Market businesses to stay and thrive in Hunts Point. We believe that industry and residents can coexist in a more mutually beneficial way, and that is what we are working towards.
The poor design of the existing highway network costs Bronx businesses time and money, and undermines the health and safety of residents and workers alike. In the absence of any better highway connection, we know that many businesses now rely on the Sheridan, even though this requires them to drive through congested local streets to reach it.
To solve these problems, we are advocating for the following changes that will improve the highway infrastructure of the Bronx:
- The Community Plan calls for a new interchange at Oak Point Avenue that would allow direct access to the Hunts Point peninsula to and from the Bruckner Expressway in all 4 directions. This solution helps business by providing faster access to the industrial part of Hunts Point, and helps residents by keeping trucks off of local streets. These are solutions that everyone can get behind.
- We are also calling for a fix to the George Washington Bridge and Major Deegan Expressway interchange so that trucks may easily travel from one to the other, and then connect to the Bruckner and access the Hunts Point peninsula directly via the new Oak Point ramps.
- Finally, we are proposing that the Bruckner Expressway elevated viaduct be extended across the Bronx River, removing the existing dangerous and congested interchange between the Sheridan and the Bruckner that now blights our neighborhood’s commercial and transit hub, and enables local streets to be reconnected at Bruckner Boulevard.
We are aware that each business will experience different impacts, but on the whole, we believe that the benefits of this plan outweigh its disadvantages for the community as a whole. We look forward to continuing these conversations with any and all people, businesses or residents, who are interested. We can be reached online at southbronxvision.org, or by calling 718-328-5622, extension 11. |
 Interchange at Oak Point Ave that will allow direct access to Hunts Point peninsula and keep trucks off local streets
 Key points of the Bronx highway network that could be modified and improved to permit the removal of the Sheridan Expressway
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May 24th, 2011
City Launches Website for Sheridan Expressway-Hunts Point Land Use and Transportation Study (SEHP)
click here to visit it |
The ‘Sheridan Expressway-Hunts Point Land Use and Transportation Study’ (SEHP) is an study being conducted by New York City of the Sheridan Expressway and surrounding highway network. The Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance will be working closely with the city in the Community Working Group to ensure that the Community Plan to redevelop the Sheridan Expressway and improve access to Hunts Point is prioritized.
Since 2001, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has been studying the Sheridan Expessway and its inefficient interchanges. Because of the hard work of community residents and the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, NYSDOT has considered removing the Sheridan. NYSDOT did not include our plan to replace the Sheridan with housing, parks, and commercial space, but New York City's SEHP will address these aspects our the Community Plan.
Through the SEHP study, the City will engage community stakeholders in a visioning process to plan for the area’s future. The study will allow the City to collect additional information about transportation, specifically truck access to the Hunts Point peninsula, and expand transportation analysis to include the broader highway network in the South Bronx.
Stay tuned for more information on community events through the SEHP webpage. Please share your comments/questions online through the Public Participation page and subscribe to an RSS feed for this webpage to receive notices of webpage updates.
For more information please contact us. |
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Thank you for a successful townhall on February 15th, 2011!
Residents of all the neighborhoods surrounding the Sheridan attended and shared their concerns with the Sheridan removal project, discussed ideas of what we can replace the highway with, and built relationships with other residents and local organizations. Numerous community organizations, political representatives, business interests and local school representatives were also in attendance. For those that couldn't make it, please keep in touch with the campaign through our mailing list and look out for events about the Sheridan Expressway through this website. Please check out our follow-up newsletter from the townhall to find out more information. If you have additional questions, please feel free
to call us at 718.328.5622 x16,
email us at ashwin.sbrwa@gmail.com
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Timothy Holmes from Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice discussing the Sheridan redevelopment project with
Crotona Park East residents
Kellie Terry-Sepulveda from The Point CDC
facilitating the February 15th townhall meeting
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New York State Dept. of Transportation's Traffic Study Based on Flawed Data
Last spring, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) presented the computerized model they used to compare the potential impact on existing streets and roadways of keeping the Sheridan Expressway versus removing it. NYSDOT concluded that their model showed an increase in traffic if the Sheridan Expressway was removed. However, an independed technical consultant, Smart Mobility, hired by the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance found NYSDOT's modeling to be flawed and to contain many errors.
Smart Mobility found the following problems with NYSDOT's model:
- the model contains factual errors such as incorrect traffic counts
- their numbers are flawed since htey assume that traffic will increase city-wide by 2030 to levers that are impossible within the limits of street space, and that are unlikely due to declining driving trends
- they overestimate truck volumes by as much as 110%
- NYSDOT's model is not designed to measure local traffic impacts
Independent experts agree - NYSDOT's model has too many flaws to determine the Sheridan's future!
Please read the full report here: NYSDOT Traffic Study of Sheridan Based on Flawed Data
CLICK LINK TO READ FULL PRESS RELEASE :
Congressman Serrano announces $1.5 million grant will fund the creation of a vision plan for the Sheridan Expressway and Hunts Point area (Congressman Serrano's Press Release)
Congressman Jose E. Serrano supports TIGER II grant to plan the redesign of the Sheridan
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"The TIGER II grant is fulfilling deep transportation and planning needs in our community,” said Serrano. “Meanwhile, the creation of a vision plan that addresses the current and future needs of our community in the Hunts Point area and the Sheridan Expressway is of vital importance. We are eager to remake this area into a livable, walkable and green section of our community, and this is the first step towards achieving that goal. I am encouraged that this grant specifically states that this ‘City-led, multi-agency, holistic planning process will be designed to respond to the needs and goals of the business and residential communities in the area.’ This is precisely the process that all planning in our borough must undergo as we work to right the development and planning wrongs of many decades.” |
The Alliance Stands on the Sheridan!
On Wednesday, July 15 2009 at 5.30 pm, the Alliance took a group photo on the Sheridan Expressway. The photograph was a repeat of a photograph taken nine years ago, and showed that at rush hour, there is still little traffic on the Sheridan. The traffic on the Sheridan is also cars commuting from Manhattan to the North Bronx and Westchester, not trucks. These cars could use the Bronx River Parkway if the Sheridan were taken down.
 SBRWA is committed to envisioning and realizing a new future of the communities along the southern reaches of the Bronx River. Our neighborhoods are saturated with junkyards, waste transfer stations, brownfields, and truck-dependent wholesale markets that pollute our air, water, and soil. In the 1950s, Robert Moses built five major national highways in the Bronx without any thought to the people who lived there. As a result, for decades the Bronx has been a place that people drive through to get somewhere else. This legacy of economic and environmental injustice is what the Bronx has inherited, and our vision is to re-create the healthy environment, robust economy, efficient transportation network, and diverse community that used to exist here; all based around the Bronx River which is an ecological, economic, and social asset that should be enjoyed by all. Welcome to the Southern Bronx River Watershed!
DId you ever think you could sit on a highway
during rush hour? You can on the Sheridan!
Please use the above and left-hand tabs to navigate our website, and be sure to check our blog, Sheridan Swap, for the latest Sheridan Campaign news!
On our website, you can learn about:
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How SBRWA hired a consultant to review NYSDOT modeling and evaluate the traffic and economic impact. Read the reports here
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The community visioning process the SBRWA conducted, during which local stakeholders developed a plan for the re-use of the land now occupied by the Sheridan
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How you can get involved!
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