Reproduced with permission of The Journal News.
Ardsley wants less truck traffic in downtown
Village asks state for 2 ramps that would funnel Thruway traffic around congested area
ALICIA MAXEY
The Journal News
ARDSLEY - Village leaders want the state to build a Thruway bypass around the downtown area to help alleviate traffic at Route 9A and Ashford Avenue.
Ardsley officials met recently with the state Thruway Authority to discuss the potential construction of an entrance ramp on the northbound side of Interstate 87, at Route 9A and Fuller Avenue, and a northbound exit ramp at Secor Road or White House Road in Greenburgh.
The new entrance ramp would enable commercial traffic to enter the Thruway without passing through Ardsley's narrow, congested downtown. Under the plan, trucks could also exit the Thruway north of the downtown.
"Our rationale is to provide people an opportunity to bypass the downtown area if they really have no business traveling through Ardsley" Village Manager George Calvi said this week. "The beauty of this proposal is all we're asking for is the creation of two new ramps."
The plan does not call for the taking of private buildings or property. The asphalt ramps would be built on vacant public land, which Calvi said was owned by the state.
Terry O'Brien, a Thruway Authority spokesman, said the by-pass idea would be included in a pending "needs assessment study" of present and future traffic patterns. The study is expected to be completed by the end of the year, and the cost to build the ramps will not be known until then, he said.
Mayor Sam Abate Jr. said his objective was to seek the authority's help in dealing with long-term traffic problems. A bypass would eliminate a significant amount of truck traffic that tears up village roads and creates traffic congestion, he said.
"I'd rather they stay on the Thruway," Abate said. "I just want there to be less (traffic) and have it move better."
Three major thoroughfares surround Ardsley's downtown, creating a mass convergence of traffic that cuts through the village from the Thruway, the Saw Mill River Parkway and Route 9A.
When the Ardsley section of the Thruway opened, it did so after some 40 buildings and structures were demolished or moved. The Thruway opened in the village between 1954 and 1960, about three decades after the state Department of Transportation opened the Saw Mill River Parkway.
"Our downtown got cut in half when the Thruway was built," Abate said. "The downtown part of the village was destroyed. They basically came in and changed the whole area."
A bypass would help Ardsley reclaim some of its small-town character and charm, village officials said.
Some immediate help is on the way. Starting June 1, the Department of Transportation is scheduled to begin an improvement project that will widen turning lanes and add traffic signals and pedestrian walkways to the Route 9A and Ashford Avenue intersection in Addyman Square.
But for some downtown merchants, bigger improvements can't come soon enough.
Scot McCartney, a fourth-generation owner of the McCartney Agency in Addyman Square, called the traffic situation there a nightmare.
"I am totally in favor of a bypass because what you get is a lot of truckers who get off the (Ardsley thruway) exit to drive north," McCartney said. "That will absolutely, no question, help traffic flow."