Dismantling part of a highway named for Robert Moses

Niagara Falls, New York, is finally making progress on redoing the Robert Moses State Parkway, an 18-mile expressway that’s been controversial in some circles since its construction almost 50 years ago.

US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) announced that the state Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation will submit a plan this month calling for removing part of the highway south of the city’s downtown and restoring the underlying Olmsted-designed park. “This proposed project will remove a flyover and replace it with a two-lane at-grade park road,” says Mayor Paul Dyster. “There’s some money for that project.”

Since the 1970s, parts of the expressway have been modified to make the area more accommodating to people on foot or on bicycle and to reduce obstacles between downtown and the majestic waterfall. In 2001, a four-lane section several miles long near the Niagara Gorge was changed—limiting motor vehicles to two lanes and allocating the other two lanes to use by hikers and cyclists.

The mayor says a state-led scoping process aimed at devising a plan for changes to the section running north from the city to the Village of Lewiston is under way. The process will narrow the options and lay out a few

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