Relief is finally on the way for drivers who have to navigate the jarring obstacle course known as Kenmore Avenue.
Standing outside St. Joe's on Wednesday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Buffalo Mayor Bryon Brown announced they have agreed to team up on fixing Kenmore Avenue.
Over the years maintenance has been complicated by the fact the westbound lane is owned by the county and the eastbound lane by the city.
Under the deal, the county will repave both sides between Fairfield Avenue and Colvin Boulevard this year. The city will do both sides between Colvin and Elmwood in the Spring. In 2015, federal funding will be used to rebuild Kenmore between Fairfield and Main Street.
"One of the advantages of doing this in three parts, is we will not have the whole road deconstructed at one point," Poloncarz said about the project which is slated to start in September.
"We are going to be able to get traffic down the road. Otherwise, it would have a significant negative impact on the businesses and the residences here if we shut down the whole three-mile stretch and tried to do it in one fell swoop."
The repaving of the two sections is expected to cost the city and the county about $500,000 each.
It's a creative solution, Brown said, one that could be a model for keeping the street repaired down the road.
"Because of how well this working relationship has gone to get to this point I think we're going to be putting Kenmore on a maintenance schedule that the city and the county can work on together."