However, the existing roadway was rebuilt by the state at a cost of over $60 million just four years ago.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler's office and representatives from the Gowanus Expressway Community Coalition noted that the Gowanus tunnel project should take precedence over tunneling the Miller Highway. Nadler's representative also cited rail access to LaGuardia airport and a new freight rail tunnel to Brooklyn as higher priority capital projects. State Senators Eric Schneiderman and Tom Duane, Assembly Member Scott Stringer and Council Member Ronnie Eldridge all blasted the project as a waste of taxpayer dollars which would subject the neighborhood to years of construction.

In 1995, Mayor Giuliani poured cold water on the project when he said there were better uses in the city for the capital funds involved. The Daily News reported this week that the city administration did not object to the project as long as funds were not diverted from other priorities. The meaning of this distinction from the Mayor's earlier position is unclear.

The NYC Environmental Justice Alliance and community leaders from Brooklyn and the Bronx said one of the two options to move the Miller Highway would interfere with access to a pier from which municipal waste is now transferred to barges. Reducing access to the pier, they stated would increase truck traffic and the burden on transfer stations in other boroughs.

Speaking in favor of the proposal to move the highway was Operating Engineers union and the Riverside South Development Corporation.