Pleasantville’s Manville Road Project Delayed by Red Tape
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Bureaucratic red tape has put a hold on work to permanently close the Memorial Plaza slip lane in Pleasantville.
The closure was scheduled for last week and is part of the Manville Road Corridor Improvement Project that will widen the road between Valvoline and the monuments to create a new right-turn lane to replace the slip lane.
The village contractor was recently notified that additional approvals from the MTA and the state Department of Transportation (DOT) were needed before the work could continue.
According to Village Administrator Eric Morrissey, a permit is needed to reconstruct the curb and sidewalk on the east side of the MTA bridge between Memorial Plaza and Wheeler Avenue The permit requires the work to be done by someone with a special track-trained certification.
“We are also working with the contractor to put together insurance costs and other necessary documents,” Morrissey said. “Once the required permit is approved the work on the slip lane and the bridge will be done at the same time.”
Traffic safety around the slip lane has been a major concern since 2007. Since Manville Road is a state road, the village had to apply to the DOT to close the slip lane and install a new traffic light adjacent to the Manville Road parking lot.
It has taken years to get final approval to move the project forward due to DOT’s repeated requests for revised budgets and new designs. The project was also put on hold during the pandemic necessitating DOT approval for needed extensions.
The final project will include new curbing and a sidewalk around the monument and will widen over the MTA bridge toward Wheeler Avenue. A center island will be between Vanderbilt Avenue and Grant Street. The addition of a mast arm traffic signal adjacent to the Manville Road parking lot will replace the double traffic signal at the intersection of Wheeler Avenue and Manville Road.
“When the slip lane is finally closed a new mast arm signal will be installed,” Morrissey noted. “That new signal will allow us to remove the double light that is there now for westbound travelers. The new mast arm has been ordered and when installed it will mark one of the last items of the project.”
The project’s goal has been to increase pedestrian safety especially on Manville Road, which has had an accident rate four times that of the New York State average. A federal grant of $1.5 million was awarded to the project and is to be administered by the DOT.
Along with closing the slip land, the project aims to modify and improve pedestrian circulation in downtown Pleasantville, including sidewalk improvements, signal enhancements, speed calming measures, pedestrian signals and medians, among other improvements.
When the slip lane is finally closed, all traffic will be directed to the Manville Road-Memorial Plaza intersection that will have a new signal and a newly-constructed right-hand turn lane.
“The Manville Road project is temporarily on hiatus,” said Mayor Peter Scherer at last week’s Village Board meeting. “We are in a holding pattern waiting for MTA and DOT approvals and meetings are going on about that aggressively. There are really only two to three weeks to complete the whole thing and repave all of Manville from Grant Street to Tompkins (Avenue). Stay tuned.”
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
