NY DOT Obstructs Putnam Bikeway
Unfortunate evidence to this effect is that Putnam County Executive Robert Bondi was forced recently to weigh in on behalf of his county planning department to pry loose federal transportation funds for a rail-trail conversion from NY State DOT officials hostile to the project. Bondi's threat to call upon Governor Pataki and State Senators and Assembly members from the county ended two years of Putnam planners being "run around every which way" by top DOT Region 8 (Mid-Hudson) officials bent on delaying and possibly scrapping the project, sources said. The project would convert the disused Putnam Division (Penn Central) rail right of way into a bicycling and walking path, connecting a Westchester pathway to the town of Brewster, 11.5 miles away. $6 million worth of Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds had been allocated to the project two years ago, but State DOT stonewalled subsequent approvals for the project until Bondi's intervention this month. The Putnam Division trail will link to another planned pathway along the Maybrook rail line recently purchased by Metro-North Railroad, that will run east to Connecticut and north to Dutchess County. It now looks as if Putnam County can acquire the entire Putnam Division right-of-way within a year and begin construction in 1997. We reported in MTR 34 that Long Island bicycling projects were also being subjected to delays the NY DOT could easily resolve. DOT maintains a bicycling and pedestrian planning office at its Albany headquarters and has issued pro-cycling policy statements. Such programs and words obviously ring hollow where the Department's regional leadership is permitted to undermine locally-supported bicycling and walking infrastructure projects.
