Overlaying NYSDOT’s Reimagine I-787 concepts, ARC’s design principles, and feedback from you, the public, to date, we are proud to release our visions for the future of Albany and Rensselaer.
People of Albany and Rensselaer, meet the Hudson.
Our Design and Our Principles
In May 2024, NYS Department of Transportation released several Highway, Boulevard, and Dunn Memorial Memorial Bridge Concepts for the future of I-787 as part of its Reimagining I-787 Planning and Environment Linkages (PEL) Study. This study, which is ongoing, expands on the previously completed I-787 Hudson Waterfront Study completed in 2018 by the Capital Region Transportation Council.
The Albany Riverfront Collaborative has for the past three years sought to gather robust public feedback from those who have been most impacted by I-787’s construction and continued existence, and has taken that feedback and created a set of design principles which have strongly influenced our Albany Reimagined concept. We have actively put our mission to “engage our complete community in the creation of an equitable, sustainable, beautiful, forever-vision, and the initial, iterative steps toward this vision” at the forefront, and have created this non-prescriptive design to show what is possible for the future of I-787.
In summary, our Albany Reimagined design has sought to turn your comments into reality. We hope that this design bolsters community conversations around the future of our city, forges new connections between Albany’s neighborhoods with each other and with the Hudson River, and can serve as a guide for what an equitable, sustainable, and transformative Albany can look like. As we’ve always said - “Together, we can!”
- Albany Riverfront Collaborative Board of Directors
By lowering the South Mall Expressway to an at-grade boulevard, we can reconnect the South End to Downtown and begin to address the systemic injustices of the past.
Concept Sketch- South Mall Expressway reconstructed as an at-grade boulevard beginning at Broadway
Concept Sketch - The view of the Corning Tower from the new boulevard
By removing the highway, we can design a city for humans and not just cars.
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92 acres
Unlocked on both sides of the river, in the form of greenspace, development, walking paths, and waterfront.
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73,500 tons of concrete
Removed, in the form of 980,000 sq ft of South Mall Arterial connector, which cleaved the South End neighborhood from the rest of the city.
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$2 Billion
In the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR 3684) for projects like the reimagining of I-787, as part of the “Reconnecting Communities” pilot project.
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$3.5 Billion
Cost of maintaining I-787 in a "state of good repair" over the next 30-40 years.
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35,000 tons of CO2e
Emitted annually by traffic along a 4-mile stretch of I-787 which could be mitigated drastically by improved public transportation, new greenspace, and a boulevarded highway.
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4.2 miles
Of new riverfront coastline made accessible to all the citizens of Albany.
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6,500 trees
Planted where a highway once used to be.
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$302 million
Total fiscal benefits of the project over next 20 years, including $178m in property tax, and $124m in sales tax.
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6.1 million sq ft
In new potential residential and commercial development.
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3,143 jobs
To construct the project, including 2,581 direct, on-site construction and 562 indirect jobs, generating $155 million in wages.
By increasing green space along the Hudson River, we can build a resilient city that can thrive in the face of a changing planet.
Concept Sketch - Looking north from the expanded Corning Preserve
