MID-HUDSON – The time is now for the third lane to be added to New York Route 17, from Harriman to the Monticello area, Orange County Partnership President Maureen Halahan said Monday.
Her comments come following adoption of the state budget which allocates $1 billion as part of a five-year transportation capital plan that will include the third lane and other improvements to transition the highway to Interstate 86 status.
Halahan is one of the leaders of the ad hoc group 17-Forward-86.
“It’s a phenomenal economic development project when you think in terms of the fact that we are going to alleviate traffic and open up this whole corridor that goes straight up to Binghamton, and it’s also a safety issue. It makes sense. We have more and more traffic on the road,” she said.
The State Department of Transportation issued a final planning and environmental linkages study for the Route 17 corridor in November 2021 that identified the need for an additional travel lane, safety upgrades and enhanced park-and-ride lots as necessary to address safety and mobility needs of the region.
