Cross Bronx Expressway - History

History

The 1929 Report on Highway Traffic Conditions and Proposed Traffic Relief Measures for the City of New York was the first citywide traffic study, classifying a number of projects that had been proposed by local interests. A "Cross-Bronx Route" along 161st and 163rd Streets was one of two proposed facilities, along with the "Nassau Boulevard" (which became the Long Island Expressway), picked by borough engineers as examples of important projects. Although this routing was south of the present Cross Bronx Expressway, the report did suggest a "New Cross-Bronx Artery" near the present expressway that would link the Washington Bridge with the Clason Point Ferry to Queens. Though it would not be built to freeway standards, it would be 60 feet (18 m) wide with grade separations "where considered necessary and desirable". The George Washington Bridge then under construction was cited among reasons to build the highway, which would help connect New Jersey to Long Island via the bridges and ferry.

In 1936, the Regional Plan Association (RPA) proposed a Cross Bronx highway which would connect the George Washington, Triborough, and Bronx–Whitestone Bridges, as well as access to points north to New England. In late 1940, the New York City Planning Commission adopted a plan for a network of highways. Except for the Bronx and Pelham Parkway, which lay to the north, no cross-Bronx highway had been built up to this point. The report stated that the "Bronx Crosstown Highway", which would now connect on the east end to the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge (which had replaced the Clason Point Ferry), was "an essential part of a desirable highway pattern", taking traffic from the George Washington Bridge to Long Island and New England. The cost was estimated at $17,000,000, higher than most improvements because of the "topographical conditions, high land values, and heavily built-up areas".

Robert Moses proposed a six-lane expressway to run through the middle of the Bronx in 1945. This project proved to be one of the most difficult expressway projects of the time: construction required blasting through ridges, crossing valleys and redirecting small rivers. In doing so, minimal disruption to the apartment buildings that topped the ridges in the area of Grand Concourse was a priority. Moreover, the expressway had to cross 113 streets, seven expressways and parkways (some of which were under construction), one subway line, five elevated lines, three commuter rail lines, and hundreds of utility, water and sewer lines, none of which could be interrupted.

Construction began in 1948. The roadway was carefully constructed with 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) lanes and 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) cobblestone shoulders. In 1963, the last of the three sections of roadway between the Alexander Hamilton and Throgs Neck Bridges were finished, completing the Cross Bronx Expressway.

The first portion, from the Bronx River Parkway east to the Bruckner Interchange, opened on November 5, 1955, at the same time as parts of the Queens Midtown and Major Deegan Expressways. When the Throgs Neck Bridge opened on January 11, 1961, the Cross Bronx was extended east as one of its two northern approaches. (The extension was part of I-78 until 1970, when it became I-295, its current designation.) A one-mile (1.5 km) western extension to a temporary interchange with Boston Road opened on April 23, 1956, and on April 27, 1960, another 1.2-mile (2 km) piece opened, taking the road west to Webster Avenue. The short 0.6-mile (1 km) piece from Webster Avenue west to Jerome Avenue opened on February 10, 1961. With the opening of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge in April 1963, the $128 million Cross Bronx was completed. This was, however, not the end of construction; the $12.6 million Highbridge Interchange with the Major Deegan Expressway (I-87) opened in November 1964, and a $68 million reconstruction of the Bruckner Interchange, allowing Bruckner Expressway (I-95/I-278) traffic to bypass the old traffic circle, opened on January 2, 1972. (Cross Bronx traffic passing through to the Throgs Neck Bridge had been able to avoid the circle, but drivers taking the Bruckner in either direction, including those bound for New England, had to exit onto the surface.)