Gambling with gridlock

Environmental council is latest group to raise red flag on traffic, By Bill Lemanski Harriman - Although the number of proposed Sullivan County casinos has been reduced, the specter of even one may spell trouble for the communities along the Route 17 corridor, according to a study by an environmental group. The only remaining new casino under consideration is by the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and is proposed for Monticello Raceway. This project is currently under federal scrutiny for a new environmental assessment. However, Suzanne Sawyer, the Catskill field director for the environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, said one casino will tip the scales of a roadway corridor already overburdened by regional growth, summer tourist traffic and the development of the Woodbury Common and other new shopping outlets. The council commissioned a traffic study by Sam Schwartz Engineering that indicated that with one Catskill casino, Sunday eastbound evening traffic could frequently create backups of 1.5 miles at the Harriman Interchange onto the New York State Thruway. The study added that regardless of whether there will be one or five casinos less than an hour’s drive from Harriman, Route 17 roadways would exceed 85 percent of capacity. That figure is the recommended upper limit for engineering design standards at locations throughout the region. According to the study, projected problems with one casino will impose an 11 percent, eastbound Sunday evening increase in traffic at Exit 130 in Monroe, which even now operates at 86 percent capacity during the Friday afternoon peak period. On Friday evenings, Route 17 would reach 92 percent of capacity at Exit 130. Orange Environment, an environmental group in Goshen, said the draft environmental impact statement submitted by Mohawk Mountain Resort used an inadequate traffic model for estimating traffic growth for the project. The group claims that along with inclement weather, the increasing trend of traffic accidents along Route 17 combined with inaccurate traffic data “means that, as Route 17 congests toward a standstill, use of secondary roads as cut-throughs and bypasses will surge. These roads, in many cases already at capacity, will then become incapacitated.” In 1998, the Orange County Southeast Region Traffic Task Force was formed by local elected officials, planning board members and the Monroe-Woodbury School District. The grassroots organization focuses on traffic in the Monroe, Harriman and Woodbury area and has grown to include the Metropolitan Transportation Administration and the New York State Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority with county participation. Feeding the traffic congestion, according to the task force, Orange County has grown 11 percent during the 1990’s and the towns of Blooming Grove, Monroe and Woodbury have increased by more than 21 percent over the past 10 years. In response, the organization hired a consultant in 2002 to conduct an analysis to include Route 17, Route 17M, Route 208, Route 32, and the heavily traveled Route 17/6/32 interchange area. Included in the study are potential modifications to the New York State Thruway and County Route 105 along with transit and pedestrian operations. Study considerations for the Woodbury-Harriman area range from resynchronization of traffic signals to adding additional lane capacity on Route 17. A year ago, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer and Rep. Maurice Hinchey called on the state to fully fund its existing seven-year-old project to upgrade Route 17 to Interstate I-86 and as well as to expand the plans to include more lanes from Harriman to Monticello. Schumer proposed using some of the casino profits to pay for the widening of Route 17. According to Orange County Planning Commissioner, David E. Chruch, there is some disagreement on whether adding lanes relieves congestion. He said that sometimes adding a lane will draw more traffic. However, Church says the addition of lanes on some sections of Route 17 is inevitable. “Even with one casino, there will be too much capacity, the question is when this may happen,” Church said. “It‘s not clear to the state when any casinos will be built.”