Construction on the SIE Angers Commuters

The bright blue sky over the Staten Island Expressway portrays that of a peaceful, happy day. However, faces o­­­­­­­f commuters show the exact opposite during the morning rush hours. Piles of dirt the size of mountains and the rumbling bulldozers and excavators along this busy road cause a standstill of cars each day.

Construction on the Staten Island Expressway (SIE) is causing a tremendous amount of traffic during rush hour. Many residents complain about the amount of traffic and its negative impact on their daily commute.

“It has been about a year, two years, now,” says Ming Lu, 55, from Willowbrook, Staten Island. “They are not working fast enough.”

According to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), this is a $119.5 million project that focuses on constructing new bus lanes, extending bus routes an extra mile. The NYSDOT is building new ramps and auxiliary lanes that connect the highway and the main roads adjacent to it. However, this is causing more traffic since the third lane of the adjacent roads are closed, leaving only two lanes, one of which is for buses.

The construction is causing problems for commuters and businesses alike.

“Since the traffic is close to the store, people can not stop by the store,” says Hasan Arshle, 18, whose father owns a deli near the construction site in Grasmere County. “[The construction] happens all day long. [It] starts from morning until night.”

When asked whether the construction was progressing, Frances Che, 16, of Heartland Village, says, “No, they are not working fast enough and I don’t like it.”

The construction has been going on for about two years since November 2010, covering  the highway and nearby roads extending from Richmond Avennue to Clove Road.

The NYSDOT’s goal is to reduce the amount of cars, allowing more buses to be available to commuters in effort to increase transit ridership, according to a press release, which said one of the goals of the project is to promote “going green.” With the reduced amount of cars on the expressway, the air quality would increase while air pollution decreases, the NYSDOT said. The ramps and auxiliary lanes would “reduce congestion at severe bottleneck locations.”

“The additional lanes will help ease traffic and mobility and add capacity to handle the anticipated growth in population in Staten Island,” says Debra A. Derrico, 55, District Manager of Staten Island Community Board 2.

“Most construction projects of this magnitude provide daily problems for commuters. The Staten island Expressway had an inadequate amount of lanes that did not serve traffic demand during numerous week-day and week-end hours,” Derrico says.

However, Christina Tang, 15, is confused about some of the NYSDOT’s goals.

“This would not be promoting ‘going green.’ With all this unnecessary money that they wasted on the construction, it could be used for other causes,” she says.

Tang is one of the many bus takers affected by the construction. She takes the s93 bus to Brooklyn, which only stops at a limited amount of places and runs along the parts of the expressway where the construction is taking place.

“[It] takes anywhere from one hour and 30 minutes to three hours since some buses only come once every half an hour,” Tang says.

People say that traffic is heavier during the school year, rainy seasons, and rush hours.

“During rainy seasons there is usually more traffic since cars and buses drive slower to avoid getting into accidents,” says Christina, who lives in Clifton County, close to the bridge.

NYSDOT did not return calls for comment.

Aside from the construction and high traffic during rush hours, some are actually looking forward to what post-construction would look like. One of these people is Jason Lukose, 15, who sees progress with the construction and is keeping a positive mind about it, anticipating the outcome.

 â€œI am seeing improvement and I like it. You can see the ramps actually coming together,” he said. “The freeway will [soon] be a more effective way to travel.