WPCNR BUMPER TO BUMPER. Traffic News & Comment By John F. Bailey. June 22, 2008: At a recent meeting of the Old Oak Ridge Neighborhood Association, that “Oak Ridge Boys” got to hear City Traffic Commissioner Tom Soyk and Mayor Joseph Delfino on what the future holds in store for White Plains. What they learned according a citizen present at the meeting was there’s more diabolic construction to come. The flollowing does not represent either Mr. Soyk's nor Mayor Delfino's views of the project. They simply showed the plans. Has the DOT got plans for us? You bet they have.

 Department of Transportation plans for finishing their scorched earth twisted concrete construction at the always-fun Exit 8 interchange from Dr. DOT Demento – a gas-wasting, aggravation levitating approaching proportions of the old Bruckner Traffic Circle in The Bronx (remember?) – were showcased by Mr. Soyk and they do not look good, gasoline-mindful drivers! At lower right is the 333 Westchester Ave former Kraft Foods property. At lower center is the North Street interchange, planned to go under a new Westchester Avenue Superramp. For Southenders coming up North Street they have to cross the Expressway and take a left into White Plains to access I-287 Eastbound via the SuperRamp upper left of picture.

 After all the construction is finally done on Exit 8 Westbound, traffic exiting westbound on the Cross Westchester Expressway will still cross with traffic entering the Expressway to go eastbound. You will still have 4 lanes of traffic merging into one long narrow one. Are they kidding?

Pardon me,  I thought the whole point of this construction was to eliminate the X flow of traffic crossing exiting traffic. That “Playland bumper cars” situation will continue on a slightly lesser scale. Never mind that the new lowert, more slanted road levels  being created on the expressway there are creating severe flooding every time it rains already.

But whenever they complete that – sometime in 2010 – if anybody can still afford to drive cars in 2010, Mr. Soyk showed the Oak Ridge “boys” what they and every other resident of the east side of White Plains what they can look forward to: perhaps five years of not being able to get on I-287 eastbound without circling into the Bloomingdale Road area. What a concept!

Gee, we thought taking out every tree around Grant Street and along the Central Westchester Parkway entrance, perching homes on the north and south sides of the Cross Westchester Expressway canyon on the edge of a cliff and creating the narrowest traffic lanes this driver has seen in sometime during the construction was enough – not to mention the flooding problems they have created by removing the trees and making the roadbed deeper.  (Long sentence, hey? Try driving through it!)

But, there’s more DOT construction torture in store starting in 2010 – if the state’s money holds out.

Exit 8: X's in picture show elimination of present Westchester Avenue. North Street is planned to continue UNDER a ramp allowing eastbound exiting I-287 traffic to continue up to the new Westchester Avenue to enter the southend of town via Bryant Avenue, it appears. Traffic exiting White Plains crosses over I-287 on Superramp that splits into two lanes Westbound, and two lanes to enter I-287 eastbound. North Street traffic going for eastbound I-287 would have to cross over I-287, make left onto the Superramp and enter it at mid upper left to enter I-287 eastbound in a series of overhead ramps to be created.

The DOT is suggesting closing Westchester Avenue east bound so if you want to get on the Cross Westchester Expressway eastbound from North Street, you have to cross over the Expressway, circle into the Westchester Avenue fork into downtown White Plains, take a left onto Bloomingdale Road and enter the flow onto to Westchester Avenue to shoo through to I-287.

The plan essentially takes all eastbound I-287 traffic from North Street and funnels into the eastbound traffic to I-287 coming out of the city downtown. Are they kidding me? If they do this, I venture to say the bottle neck of an extra lane of I-287 eastbounders will create an honking, jamming mess at the Bloomingdale Road entrances.

Bottom line – if you’re coming North on North Street, you cannot simply turn off onto Westchester Avenue and ease onto Anderson Hill Road or enter I-287 slightly ahead anymore if the DOT does this. You’re going to have to cross over I-287, make a left and circle back into White Plains to get onto the super flyover ramp that takes all the eastbound traffic out of White Plains.

See what you think.  

This is an overview of the proposed construction for Phase II of the Exit 8 Interchange makeover. The parking lot of 333 Westchester Avenue is at the bottom of your picture.  You will note in the bottom left of the picture, there are xxxxx’s showing the proposed closure of Westchester Avenue as it exists now. That will be fun when they do this prior to constructing this nightmare.

You will see a flyover elevated roadway leading you to Anderson Hill Road over to Purchase, being planned to the right of your picture, and you will see that the new improved Westchester Avenue leads into I-287 with 2 lanes entering for eastbound and 2 lanes for Westbound, creating a cross- pattern merge on the ramp out of White Plains. How does this improve what has existed before? This superramp flies over North Street now.  Won’t traffic trying to go eastbound snarl up traffic attempting to go Westbound? Does this make sense?  Won’t this create backup on North Street northbound?

Area to the Right of North Street -- 333 Parking Lot is at bottom of your picture.

Not only that but the lane taking westbound traffic from the super Westchester Avenue ramp and Eastbound I-287 traffic from North Street is two lanes! Are you kidding me? There are two lanes for Westbound traffic off the Super Ramp coming up off Bloomingdale Road and two lanes of East-Westbound I-287 coming off North Street. That my friends recreates what we have now every evening in White Plains – four lanes of traffic going into one narrow merge and you will have cross flow! Eastbounders from North Street crossing in front of Westbounders from the Superramp who are trying to ramp onto I-287 westbound. At least now, if you’re going to I-287 eastbound from North Street, you avoid the Exit 8 mess altogether. With this DOT preliminary plan you go into it! 

But, traffic route planning aside, what is wrong with the present setup. According to Mr. Rudikoff, the plan is to remove the traffic light jamup at North Street and Westchester Avenue, which creates a backup on the present Westchester Avenue .  However this seems to be an awful lot of expensive elevated construction that will create a nightmare on the city’s eastern gateway for the next seven years.

But, it does keep the DOT engineers at their drawing boards for another seven years, doesn’t it?

Is that what they were thinking when they came up with this plan? Employment for another decade?

They certainly could not have been thinking of the people of White Plains and those who drive in White Plains.