HURLEYVILLE – While a major effort is underway to have the state and federal governments widen Route 17 from Harriman to Liberty from two to three lanes in each direction, an opposing consortium has emerged.
Mountainkeeper Executive Director Ramsay Adams said the project is counter to guidelines set by the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
“Now, for a lot of reasons including the fact that expanding the highway won’t reduce traffic, the major piece, it will also increase climate pollution,” he said. “So, the many folks on this coalition are asking the governor to rethink it and there is time to rethink it, and the time is now.”
Adams said the widening concept has been around since the Borscht Belt era of the Catskills, but the money can be better spent by repairing the current highway rather than widen it.
A consortium dubbed 17Forward86 has been lobbying for several years to have the widening funded.
