![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/8B7A3854-scaled.jpg\" "\\"Bronx")
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The Cross Bronx Expressway. <\/p>\n
Photo by Adrian Childress<\/p>\n
Advocates with the Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition rallied at the Bronx River Art Center on Wednesday, urging Mayor Zohran Mamdan<\/a>i\u2019s administration to \u201cfast-track\u201d restarting a stalled bus lane project on Tremont Avenue as an alternative to the state\u2019s plan to repair the Cross Bronx Expressway.<\/a><\/p>\n Siddhartha S\u00e1nchez, executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, charged that Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a>\u2018s Department of Transportation\u2019s plan to widen the expressway\u2019s shoulders would \u201conly deepen the very damage\u201d that the highway has already inflicted on the Boogie Down. Widening the highway\u2019s shoulders, advocates argue, could open the door to eventually adding more traffic lanes to the already heavily congested and polluting road, which cuts through the center of the Bronx.<\/p>\n The advocates have long charged<\/a> that the state\u2019s $900 million \u201c5 Bridges Project,\u201d<\/a> which is aimed at rehabbing the five bridges along the Cross Bronx, would bring necessary repairs, but would not address the highway\u2019s adverse environmental impact on Bronxites.\u00a0<\/p>\n As an alternative, S\u00e1nchez said Mamdani\u2019s Department of Transportation should restart plans to build half-mile busways on Tremont Avenue to speed up the Bx36 bus, which was paused by former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 administration last summer<\/a>. Part of the Bx36\u2019s route runs parallel to a stretch of the Cross Bronx.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the shadow of this huge highway that might even get bigger, we are urging the mayor to prioritize the 3,000 residents of Bronx River houses who live right across the street from the Cross Bronx and haven\u2019t been able to open their windows for over a generation, as well as everyone else who struggles just to breathe here and make sure we have something what we do need, the BX 36,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said during the event.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need the mayor to fast-track the Tremont Avenue busway before State Construction locks in a future that once again leaves the Bronx behind,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n