As someone who has driven past the “Future 86” signs for nearly two decades, when the New York State Department of Transportation announced they were going to begin holding public hearings about the project to upgrade Route 17 into Interstate 86 I was skeptical. We remember the false starts over the years, but I was willing to give this a chance. Thankfully, that chance did not go wasted. On Wednesday, May 15, the DOT and the Federal Highway Administration hosted a “public scoping meeting” to demonstrate to us what concepts they were evaluating and what the project could potentially look like.
I am writing this to say thank you to all of the people behind that meeting and this project. They were all extremely kind, knowledgeable, and willing to listen to what we had to say about the project. I was pleased with most of what I saw, but I must admit I was not thrilled with everything (specifically their proposed closure of Exit 127 for Sugar Loaf and Warwick). However, to be able to see plans was so reassuring and invigorating. I am very excited to see what is next for this project.
If you are interested in learning more about where the project currently stands, you can go to this website: route17.dot.ny.gov/#/. There is also a section where you can leave comments about the project to add to the public record by May 30 here: route17.dot.ny.gov/#/mobility-access-contact. I think it is the responsibility of all of us who live here and regularly use Route 17 to speak up and let the people working so diligently on this project know how excited we are and what we hope to see when it is all said and done.
Joshua Koff
Goshen