$475K will aid bicycle and pedestrian access
The money from the state will help offset the cost of work on Henry W. DuBois Drive.
The town is getting $475,000 from the state to help fund the planned bike lanes and sidewalks on Henry W. DuBois Drive, which is to be part of the Empire State Trail.
The funding, included in the state’s latest round of Regional Economic Development Council awards, will supplement the $2.2 million awarded to the town earlier this year for the construction of a bicycle lane and drainage improvements, said New Paltz Supervisor Neil Bettez.
The new money also will allow the town to install tree pits and bioretention areas to manage increased stormwater runoff generated by the increase in impervious surface, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.
“With the money we originally got, you can do pretty boring gray infrastructure ... drainage and stuff,” Bettez said. “So we asked for more money so we could do fancy stuff like rain gardens, tree wells and things like that.”
Bettez said consultants who have been working on the plan for the entire 0.7mile length of Henry W. DuBois Drive — from North Putt Corners Road to Route 32 — will be asked to incorporate “green” alternatives into the project.
“We’re hoping, with this money, we can actually do some innovate stormwater control as part of this building the bike path,” Bettez said. “It’s all in theory. We have to wait for the engineers and the designers to get everything.”
Efforts to develop Henry W. DuBois Drive for nonmotorized transportation date back to before there even was mention of an Empire State Trail, which ultimately is to comprise 750 miles and connect New York City with Lake Champlain to the north and Buffalo to the west.
Among the first notable supporters of having
Henry W. DuBois Drive become part of the trail was U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who in a 2014 letter to the Federal Highway Administration pointed out the hazards of having bikes and motorized vehicles in close proximity to each other.
“For years Henry Dubois [Drive] has been the only real alternative to New Paltz’s busy Main Street ... for the majority of New Paltz cyclists,” the New York Democrat wrote. “It is also a pedestrian route, but with fastmoving traffic, no dedicated shoulder, and inconsistent sidewalks, it is a problematic and dangerous alternative.”
Henry W. Dubois Drive runs parallel to Main Street, just to the north of it.
Bettez said work on the road is expected to start with property surveys over the winter, and “we’re hoping
construction starts in spring of 2021 and is finished by the end of 2021.”
“There are going to be some public meetings,” the supervisor said. “We’re interested in what the public wants ... but in the end, we can only do what we can afford to do.”