The people have spoken: They don’t want a West Street Tunnel.

Politicians, civic and environmental advocates and many Lower Manhattan residents spoke against the proposal to build a bypass tunnel under West Street last Thursday at the final public hearing on the rebuilding of West Street.

Of the 31 speakers, only one – a representative of the NY State Contractors Association – spoke in favor of building the tunnel.

The draft supplemental environmental impact statement studies three different options for rebuilding the portion of West Street that was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attack. These include keeping West Street an at-grade six-lane road, adding two lanes to make it an at-grade eight-lane, and building a bypass tunnel The tunnel would cost $860 million – almost $700 million more than the at-grade options.

Governor Pataki supports the tunnel, and proponents claim it will reduce noise around the 9/11 memorial, but politicians, businesses, and residents don’t agree. The tunnel will make it more difficult for pedestrians to cross significant portions of the highway and could attract more traffic to Lower Manhattan.

Representatives for State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, and state Senator Martin Connor spoke against the tunnel, as did representatives of the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown, Regional Plan Association, Coalition to Save West Street, NYPIRG-Straphangers, and the Tri-State Campaign.

If overwhelming opposition to the tunnel does not give the Governor enough incentive to call NYS DOT off of the project, the legal challenges likely to ensue if the tunnel is pursued might give him pause. Speakers raised doubts about the legality of supplementing an EIS that was drafted in 1994 when the conditions in Lower Manhattan were markedly different and when the tunnel question was not even on the table. Speakers also questioned the sufficiency of the SDEIS’s cumulative impact analysis and plans to minimize air impacts during construction.

NYSDOT will continue to accept written comments on the project until July 28, the last day comments can be postmarked. 

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