Robert Moses State Parkway - History

History

Proposals for a limited-access highway to connect downtown Niagara Falls with the proposed Niagara Thruway, a spur of the New York State Thruway, surfaced by the 1950s. The general routing of the highway would begin at the Rainbow Bridge in downtown and parallel NY 384 on its north side to the North Grand Island Bridge, where it would turn south to meet the northern terminus of the Niagara Thruway. However, by the 1960s, a new alignment along the bank of the Niagara River and through the Niagara Falls State Park was selected instead. Two portions of the "Niagara Parkway", as it was then known, were completed by 1962. The first extended from the Niagara Thruway (Interstate 190) to the Rainbow Bridge. Another, representing a northward extension of the parkway, was open along the Niagara Gorge's eastern edge from Niagara Avenue to U.S. Route 104 in Lewiston. At the time, the sections from the Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Street and US 104 to Ridge Road in Lewiston were under construction. Both were open to traffic by 1964. An extension of the parkway, now named the "Robert Moses State Parkway" after public works developer Robert Moses, north to NY 18 in Porter was completed by 1968. A spur to Fort Niagara was built as part of the extension.

The Robert Moses Parkway was to have been part of a vast network of limited-access highways in the Buffalo area. Under the 1971 Regional Highway Plan for the Buffalo–Niagara Falls area, the parkway would have been paralleled by a westward extension of the LaSalle Expressway, which would have extended from the Rainbow Bridge to I-190 along the proposed routing shown on maps 20 years before. Farther north, the northern end of the Robert Moses Parkway in Porter would have linked to a western extension of the Lake Ontario State Parkway. Neither proposal ever came to fruition.

The portion of the Robert Moses Parkway within Niagara Falls State Park was closed and largely removed in the late 1980s as a result of a movement to restore the park to the original layout conceived for it by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. As a result, the parkway became discontinuous. Its southern segment now began at the pre-existing interchange with Quay Street (John B. Daly Boulevard), which remained virtually untouched, while the southern end of the northern segment was reconfigured in the vicinity of downtown to terminate at an at-grade intersection with Main Street (NY 104). Traffic must now employ NY 384 to bridge the two sections of the parkway. The portions of the Robert Moses Parkway that still exist within Niagara Falls State Park are mostly in the vicinity of the Rainbow Bridge and are used for park business only.

Additional downgrading of the highway has occurred in other areas. From Cedar Avenue in downtown Niagara Falls to I-190 in Lewiston, the southbound lanes were gradually converted into a recreation/bike trail during the 2000s, funneling all traffic into the former northbound lanes and turning the parkway into a two-lane highway.

Future changes have been proposed for the parkway, which has been referred to as a barrier between the city of Niagara Falls and the riverfront of the Niagara River. One proposed change calls for the replacement of the former Quay Street interchange with a roundabout, a project which would have cost $12 million to complete in 2006. A second would remove the former routing of the parkway through the southeastern portion of Niagara Falls State Park, which would force all parkway traffic to enter Niagara Falls via John B. Daly Boulevard. There are no set timelines for either project.

In February 2013, New York State announced that the segment of the Parkway from Main Street north to Findlay Drive would be removed, allowing improved access by residents and tourists on the city streets to the gorgefront. The space will be replaced with parkland. Officials hope to get started immediately on removing that segment while discussing the possible removal of a further stretch, from Findlay north to the Routes 104/18F interchange in Lewiston.