The City of Buffalo will bring auto traffic back to another section of Main Street in two years. Work on reconstructing a portion of the street is scheduled to get underway in July, Mayor Byron Brown announced Thursday.
Pre-construction work is already visible at the NFTA Metro Rail station just off Scott Street. The two-year project will see the reconfiguration of Main Street between Scott and Exchange Streets to accommodate both rail and auto traffic.
Completion is scheduled for 2020. Mayor Brown explained that the slower schedule was planned to allow nearby activities to continue as smoothly as possible.
"This has been very carefully designed by the city's Department of Public Works to have minimal interruption to the activity of business, walkers, vehicles and Canalside activities," he said.
City officials say the block of Main Street undergoing reconstruction will alos have 20 parking spaces when the road is ready.
The cost of the project, according to Mayor Brown, is $22.5 million, most of which comes from a federal Transportation Investment Generating Economc Recovery (TIGER) grant.
