Growth clogs roadway
New residents, commuters lead to congestion

By Craig Wolf Poughkeepsie Journal April 18 , 2005

Old-timers can still remember when Route 9D, the state road that links Beacon and Wappingers Falls, was a quiet, windy, picturesque byway. Today, it's busy and getting busier as hundreds upon hundreds of homes go up, making it one of the region's boom towns.
Technically, there's no ''town'' here in this western slice of the Town of Fishkill. But back in the early 20th century's brickyard days, Brockway just north of Beacon was at least a burg. It faded. And now, the area is coming back strong.
And the road itself? Traffic is surging, up 13.4 percent from 2002 to 2003, when 19,265 cars a day were clocked in Wappinger, according to the most recent state Department of Transportation traffic count data.
The DOT has plans to reconstruct the southern part, adding turning lanes, shoulders and other improvements, but those plans lay somewhere in the indefinite future. And, there has been some schedule slippage lately as the project dropped off a new work-list draft issued last week.
Rebuilding sooner rather than later would be better, suggests James Wick, who has lived on 9D for decades and chairs the Fishkill planning board.
''It's just going to be a mess,'' he said. ''Do you build a road and then let the people fill it up?'' Or, do you wait until the need is already there and react?
''We're always playing catch-up,'' Wick said.
The 9D project doesn't show up in a new Transportation Improvement Plan for 2006-2010 issued last week by the Poughkeepsie-Dutchess County Transportation Council, a joint effort of state transport agencies and local and county governments. It did show up in the old one that was just replaced. The old plan gave only a post-2006 time frame for Route 9D.
The ''Connections 2025" document issued in November 2003 from the same council shows a $19.5 million reconstruction job somewhere between 2007 and 2025.
The DOT's Poughkeepsie regional office spokeswoman, Colleen McKenna, has not responded to repeated requests for details on the project or its timing.
Fishkill town Supervisor Joan Pagones was expecting Route 9D work to stay in the plan for the near term.
''We expect it to go forward unless they decide to change their plan,'' she said last week.
Kam Singh, proprietor of a Mobil gas station in the Brockway area for six years, said traffic ''is getting a lot bigger.''
''How are they going to survive with just the one road?'' Singh said.
Route 9D is a two-lane road, except for a few blips where it's three. It has few passing zones, and it's the only north-south passage between Beacon and Wappingers Falls except for Route 9.
The area in question lies in the Town of Fishkill and the Town of Wappinger, but it is the Fishkill portion that's exploding with houses.
Houses, stores in works
Wick tallied up housing developments that have been built in recent years or that are planned.
About 600 units have gone up, starting with the Avalon View Apartments, 288 units built around 1993. More recently, Tom Perna's AVR Realty has built townhouses and single-family homes.
''Sales are going extremely well, extremely strong,'' Perna said. He's starting 50 units of apartments now; the site plan calls for 150. A shopping plaza has signed tenants for two buildings, 15,000 and 17,000 square feet, and Perna hopes to add a larger store.
''As soon as we start showing the buildings, we're going to put our efforts to get a major tenant -- like a little grocery store,'' he said.
Toll Brothers, a national giant, has come in with several dozen homes. Horizons at Fishkill is building 90 units for senior citizens off Dogwood Lane.
''The total to be built that are proposed, and yet to go -- another 1,100,'' Wick said. ''These are ones we know of.''
And of those, 470 are already approved by the planners. Some of the rest may be stickier and take longer, like Perna's plan for 350 units in the old Chelsea Industrial Park, which will need a pollution solution first.
Recent, current and planned homes come to about 1,700, and there's land left. To the north, Wappinger hasn't seen a big jump, but has potential.
Traffic on the northern part of 9D often brings a crush even now. Barbara Roberti, who lives in New Hamburg and works at Wappinger town offices in Hughsonville, said traffic can get ''horrendous.''
''You could sit through that light at Hughsonville four or five times if you're going north,'' she said. That's not even rush hour, when commuters swarm and unload from the Metro-North station in New Hamburg and head south.
Other commuters pour out of the larger, and expanding, Beacon train station. Many of them head north.
The worst crunch is when rush hour combines with the crack of the bat at Dutchess Stadium, a 4,320-seat ballpark whose faithful crowds prompt the deployment of police to manage traffic.
With housing, retail, commuting and general traffic circulation on the rise, Route 9D's increasing usage may create demand for road improvements sooner than later.
''They may have to move their plans along even quicker,'' Pagones said.
''It is a state road and they're going to have to step up and make these things happen,'' Pagones said.
Craig Wolf can be reached at cwolf@poughkeepsiejournal.com
Route 9D corridor
- The state Department of Transportation is studying traffic conditions in Fishkill town and village.
- Reconstruction and minor widening of Route 9D is projected for sometime after 2010 as a $19.5 million job.
- A reconstruction of the interchange with Route 9D and Interstate 84 is planned to improve operations and provide access to the Dutchess Intermodal Center, a parking lot and bus stop near Dutchess Stadium. About $2 million in design work is planned in 2006 for what could ultimately be a $52 million project.
Meeting scheduled
The Poughkeepsie-Dutchess County Transportation Council will hold a public meeting on its draft Transportation Improvement Program covering all projects planned in Dutchess at 3 p.m. April 26 at the county planning offices, 27 High St., City of Poughkeepsie. The public comment deadline is May 4 and the plan will be adopted May 11.

Resources
Plans can be seen at www.dutchessny.gov/pdctc.htm
Comments can be addressed to Kealey Salomon, Poughkeepsie-Dutchess County Transportation Council, 27 High Street, 2nd Floor, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601; or via e-mail: pdctc@co.dutchess.ny.us Phone: 845-486-3600
.
Copyright © 2005, Poughkeepsie Journal

AREA NEWSPAPER
CONTACT INFORMATION

ULSTER/ DUTCHESS

Poughkeepsie Journal
PO Box 1231
Poughkeepsie, NY 12602
(845) 454-2000
For an on line letter to the editor. Fill out this form

ULSTER COUNTY

Saugerties Times
Monday deadline
P.O.Box
Phone:334- 8200
FAX your letter 334-8202
saugertiestimes@ulsterpublishing
(Attention Erica Freudenberger, editor)
P.O.Box 3329
Kingston, NY 12402

Albany Times Union
Times Union
90 State Street
Albany, NY 12207
(518) 454-5091
For an on line letter to the editor. Fill out this form

COLUMBIA COUNTY
The Independent
Indenews (online)

P.O. Box 360
Hillsdale, NY 12529
Phone (518) 325-4400
FAX (518) 325-4497
Parry Teasdale, editor

letters to editor require form through website

***NOTE: Our websites make an effort to glean info for our readers from local papers. This is no way a substitute for subscribing or picking up a local paper. We gratefully acknowledge the efforts local newspapers and publications make to our community