They Paved Paradise...Reclaiming a Piece of the Bronx

The Sheridan Expressway hovers over the South Bronx.

The Sheridan Expressway is the proverbial highway to nowhere. Planned in 1941 for trucks going to and from the Hunts Point markets, construction was stopped by groups who were appalled by the idea of a highway through the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden. In 1997, the State's Department of Transportation resurrected the plan to extend the Expressway to Hunts Point, but more than 65 years after its planning, it is still a one-mile strip that does nothing but confuse drivers.

The Sheridan Expressway is the proverbial highway to nowhere. Planned in 1941 for trucks going to and from the Hunts Point markets, construction was stopped by groups who were appalled by the idea of a highway through the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden. In 1997, the State's Department of Transportation resurrected the plan to extend the Expressway to Hunts Point, but more than 65 years after its planning, it is still a one-mile strip that does nothing but confuse drivers.

The Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, a coalition of environmental advocacy groups, proposed tearing down the Expressway and succeeded in forcing an environmental review and getting the state to abandon plans for a proposed extension. The Alliance had also proposed on ramps to the Bruckner Expressway that would get pollution-belching trucks en route to Hunts Point Market off of local roads, improving safety and air quality in Hunts Point. The State DOT has adopted the proposal to build on ramps, but as of December 2009, the fate of the Sheridan has yet to be sealed.