What's With the Route 59 Construction In West Nyack?

Wait—they're working on Route 59 in West Nyack again?

The construction project currently going on—titled the "Route 59 Reconstruction and Bridge Replacement"—costs approximately $30,600,000 (it's financed by federal and state, not local, funds).

According to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDT), this project encompasses the segment of Route 59 from Route 303 to Sickletown Road. The goals? Address the deteriorating condition of the bridges on Route 59 by replacing four of the bridges and rehabilitating the fifth.

Another part of the plan is to ultimately lighten up traffic by adding additional lanes, and raise the height of the road near the Palisades Mall entrance to avoid road closures from the constant flooding during storms. Pedestrian safety with new sidewalks and better access to cross the road are among the list of improvements, too, NYSDT says.

All of that sounds great, but is it all really worth the hefty price tag? And the headaches that come with ongoing construction?

With such a high cost, the project was stopped in April due to the state's budget crisis. It was then resumed in June after new funding was made available.

As a result, getting off exit 8E on the Palisades parkway has been tough these last few months—cars are backed up for long stretches. The portion of road between Crosfield Avenue and a bit before the Palisades Mall is being worked on, too, and the busy two-lane road merges into one crooked lane.

(The sign appears way before the merging begins, so you have all the scared drivers swerving into your lane, and then of course the obnoxious ones who wait until the road runs out to cut you off. You can't win.)

At certain points of the day the traffic isn't too bad, but first thing in the morning it's bad. If you want to get to onto Crosfield Avenue, switching into the turning lane can be very difficult—as everyone else is moving to the right, going to the left is no easy task. I work in a medical office in a building on that street, and all day long we have several late appointments from the construction.

(And even if there isn't traffic at a precise moment, it always works as a good excuse.)

It's affecting some of the businesses in the area. Further down the road, at Top Nails, the girls said they are constantly getting late customers, which throws off their whole day.

Past the Palisades Mall, the construction starts up again, but not as bad. There are more cones and swerving roads, but thankfully the two lanes stay intact. But since this project isn't supposed to finish until the end of this winter, December will no doubt be trouble. All the holiday shoppers trying to turn into that mall, with the already backed up roads, will be a disaster waiting to happen!