Truck traffic and pollution could increase in parts of the Bronx, upper Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey when the MTA starts collecting congestion tolls in Manhattan south of 60th St., an environmental assessment of the plan says.
The toll plan will curb traffic in Manhattan from 60th St. southward by 15% to 20%, the environmental assessment says.
But because some communities outside lower Manhattan will likely see more truck traffic and emissions, the plan earmarks $155 million toward pollution mitigation.
MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber said the agency hopes the $155 in mitigation spending will persuade the federal government to determine that the plan has “no significant impact” under federal environmental laws.
Areas that could get more truck traffic include the Bronx neighborhoods of High Bridge, Morrisania and Crotona, Tremont, Hunts Point, Mott Haven, Pelham, Throgs Neck and Northeast Bronx; East Harlem; Downtown Brooklyn as well as the nearby Fort Greene and South Williamsburg neighborhoods; and Orange, East Orange, Newark and Fort Lee in New Jersey.
Those communities all lie along interstate highways truckers could use to divert around lower Manhattan, the assessment says.
But the impact would vary. High Bridge and Hunts Point will likely get just a modest uptick in traffic, adding to existing environmental problems. The assessment names East Harlem as a neighborhood with fewer existing pollution or chronic-disease issues, but one that could expect a larger increase in truck traffic.
One way the MTA hopes to mitigate the problem is by steeply discounting congestion tolls overnight, partly in the hope that trucks will avoid more circuitous routes around lower Manhattan.
Additionally, the agency will spend $100 million on mitigation efforts to clean the air in the worst-impacted communities.
The plan includes $10 million to install air filtration systems at schools within 1,000 feet of highways; $10 million for 44,000 trees and shrubs to be planted alongside high-traffic roads; $25 million for the creation of additional parks; and $20 million to establish an asthma case-management program in the Bronx.
Those programs will be funded through congestion pricing tolls collected through congestion pricing.
An additional $15 million will replace the thousand aging diesel refrigeration units at Hunts Point Produce Market with more efficient modern systems, and $20 million will go towards developing electric truck charging infrastructure.
The final environmental assessment, approved last week by the Department of Transportation and to be released to the public Friday, requires one further sign-off from the feds before the MTA can get to work implementing congestion pricing.
A “finding of no significant [environmental] impact” could come as early as 30 days from Friday.
At a briefing for journalists Thursday ahead of the report’s release, Lieber said that the regional benefits of congestion pricing and make the $155 million in mitigation spending worthwhile.
“The finding, if we achieve it, of ‘no significant impact’ means that even those impacts identified in the environmental assessment … don’t rise to a level that exceeds the standard for ‘significant’ under federal environmental law,” Lieber said.
“The bottom line from our standpoint — congestion pricing means less traffic, cleaner air, safer streets, better transit.”
