The City of Buffalo is gearing up for another big streetscape project nearly two miles away from the major revitalization work happening on Jefferson Avenue. A stretch of the Main Street Corridor will soon see some major upgrades for travelers and business owners.
The Middle Main Streetscape Project is a $70 million endeavor aimed at redesigning and modernizing a 2.5-mile stretch of Main Street from Goodell Street to Kensington Avenue.
“This is more than just a repaving; it's a transformational investment. It will create a cleaner, more accessible, more connected Main Street corridor," said Mayor Sean Ryan.
The project's cost is supported through a combination of federal, state and local funding sources, with $41.6 million coming from federal transportation funds, including a $25 million RAISE Grant, with the remaining federal portion programmed through the region's Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).
State funding totals $21.5 million and includes New York State's match for TIP-funded work. through the Marchiselli Aid Program, as well as CHIPS funding associated with the corridor's State Touring Route designation.
Local contributions total $6.9 million, including $1.5 million provided by the Buffalo Sewer Authority.
Congressman Tim Kennedy garnered much of the federal and state funding, beginning with his tenure as a New York State senator. He says that Main Street’s rugged roads have caused thousands of dollars in damages to cars travelling through the area.
“We should not have a Main Street that's in shambles, where you drive down the street, dodging potholes and cracks and fissures," he said.
The project, designed by DiDonato Associates, will focus on repaving the roads, improving safety and accessibility, enhancing green infrastructure and beautification, and improving quality of life for residents and business owners. As deputy mayor Benjamin Swanekamp noted, it won’t be a surface-level project.
“They'll be going down two feet, so it's a full reconstruction. It's not like a mill and overlay, where they're going to go down a couple inches on the blacktop. They're going all the way down," he said.
"Main Street will become two lanes of traffic with parking only accessible on the east side of Main Street. This gives us the space that's needed to work on the sidewalks on the west side of the street," said Department of Public Works Commissioner Nolan Skipper. "We're going to be working in three block increments, starting at Goodell, working north. We'll reconstruct the sidewalk, install new curbs in the new bike lanes, and then pivot to the next three blocks."
The city will be holding stakeholder meetings to inform the public as the project progresses. The next will be held virtually on May 28th at 5 pm. A link to join that meeting can be found here.
