LIVINGSTON MANOR – Now that Governor Hochul has initiated a study of traffic concerns on New York Route 17, Catskill Mountainkeeper says there is no need to add a third lane in each direction of the highway from Harriman to west of Monticello.
Funding for that plan has been accumulating, but Mountainkeeper Ramsay Adams says the real issue is that of safety upgrades.
“This expansion of 17 was basically an effort started in the 1970s to reencourage the Borscht Belt hotel developments and to create a corridor that would drive more development up here,” he said. “We’re not in that world anymore. There is no traffic pressure on Route 17.”
Adams knows firsthand about safety issues. He hit a pothole on the highway and blew out a tire.
A group of economic developers, business leaders and construction trades officials, on the other hand, maintain the third lane is needed and they have been lobbying for it in recent years.
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